Gangchi Li is a product designer and interaction designer living in London, UK. She is currently studying design product at the Royal College of Art. She is sensitive and sharp, willing to observe the details of life, hoping to see the world from a new perspective.
Create forever.
In the past ten years, I have suffered from bulimia. "Eating" used to be the most important thing in my life. I craved food but was afraid of it. Such contradictory and distorted feelings surrounded me, and to this day, I still can't rid myself of them.
Therefore, in the final year of my Masters, I focused on the topic of emotional eating. I aimed to explore the causes and solutions behind emotional eating: Where do our food cravings come from? What causes us to overeat uncontrollably and persistently? Where is the boundary between ourselves and food?
In the end, my attention was directed toward technical workers who experience emotional eating due to work pressure. As I delved into their lives, I was surprised to discover that behind the seemingly generous "Job benefits," the provision of free food became a means of control.
How many times has a complimentary dinner at 8 pm left you at your desk?
How often have the free energy bars in the pantry helped you keep going?
Are these "Job benefits" truly beneficial, or are they merely "sugar-coated bullets" of capitalism?
To what extent do you truly possess control over your own life?
The phenomenon of sugar addiction caused by work stress is not new to tech workers. Emotional eating caused by stress has negatively impacted the health of many tech workers.
"Sweetsmile" is an electronic snack distributed to employees by the company as one of the Job benefits. It helps employees taste sweetness without consuming calories, enabling them to work long hours and maintain good health.
At the same time, "Sweetsmile" also associates the negative emotions caused by stress with facial expressions, and realizes the function of forcing a smile through an exquisite structural design. When employees use "Sweetsmile" due to work pressure, they will smile involuntarily and cannot express their true emotions through facial expressions. Through such means, the company creates a falsely happy office atmosphere.
From controlling diet to further controlling the expression and transmission of emotions, this project attempts to explore the deep meaning of "Job benefits".
Are "Job benefits" real benefits? Or is this just one of the means by which capitalism controls labor?
Control your diet, control your expression, control your life.
Just be controlled.
