Present, Coffee

For the Present project I chose notating an everyday action, and the first one that came to my mind was brewing coffee which is my morning ritual.

First, I literally recorded the whole process a few times, here are some bits of the video:

Below are all the elements I use:

What I noticed is that in instructions usually only the object are shown and rarely hands that make those actions. So first I tried to invert it and focus only on the hands and gestures instead of objects.

Then I made a diagram about which elements are in use over time, with the focus on which are used together at the same time, which continue to be used over a period of time and which only for a few seconds.

The notation system here takes a lot from music notation, especially in aspect of grouping items together (like sounds in chords) and noting which things are being used continuously (illustrated by the bow shapes).

What I found smart about notes when I was playing piano, is that there are two separate scripts, one for each hand. I wanted to play with the idea of when which hands uses which item, and in what way.

It started from a very simple diagram. The tools above the line are used by right hand, and below by the left.

To make it clearer and more understandable, I tried showing straightforwardly which part of instruction describes which hand, and what are the actions.

Some sketches:

Lastly, I really wanted to show the movement of the kettle or the water, even if in a very simplified way but couldn’t really work it out.

Here are some tryouts to show the water: first still, then boiling, lifted in a kettle, poured over and dropping down to the cup.