Death Clock

I have given a lot of thought to the final project. I came up with a dozen ideas on incorporating food into art, such as creating a landscape in a diorama that resembled a landscape painting or layering parts of a cake to imitate a painting. I also considered sculpture made from different types of food, and even considered making a Dahli clock styled pizza (partly because I fear everyone will bring in desert type work). During the last class before finals, the topic of death came up and I started thinking a lot about it. Time and death have some pretty obvious links, so I chose to make a giant cookie to represent these two themes. It was too large to shape traditionally, but I managed to keep it together on my second try. I will update this blog with more details after it has been presented (I don't want to spoil the surprise.)

Update
The big reveal: A Giant Fortune Cookie. Inside is a running stopwatch and the fortune "When men speak of the future, the God's laugh."

I named this piece Death Clock. Generally, a death clock "predicts" when the user will die. This of course is  nonsense as no one knows when their "time is up". It is still amusing for people to imagine that their future can be told. I think it is fascinating that people can be entertained by the concept of death, even their own. I chose to make a fortune cookie as the first layer to my edible metaphor, since it is a playful way for people to imagine the future. It was a double batch of batter (made mostly of egg whites, sugar, and flour) spread on a pizza pan. After it was baked, I placed the running stopwatch and the fortune inside. The clock started when the cookie was "born". It resets every 60 minutes, so there is no way to know how long the clock has been running. Ultimately, the message of this piece is that death is simultaneously serious and funny, and that no one knows when it will come.

People tend to overlook the unpredictability of life and constantly plan for tomorrow. When men speak of the future, the God's laugh.