"My first experience with 火鍋 was at an all-you-can-eat banquet hall. It was enormous and bizarre, in the sense that it was all business. There was no ambiance whatsoever, just a huge kiosk full of raw meat, veggies, and seafood in the center of a gigantic room. You were supposed to go through and collect all of the ingredients you wanted to put in your broth. You then took your collection back to a table, where you cooked it in a personal pot of said broth. I swear this was the best 火鍋 I ate in Taiwan, despite fierce competition. I assumed all 火鍋 restaurants were like that one, but this was a gem of weirdness in an even weirder part of town, surrounded by rice fields. I went twice and never learned the name of it.

Taiwan has a serious do-it-yourself attitude toward food, which I really appreciated. Going to a new street stall or trying a different restaurant always felt like a new level in a choose-your-own-adventure game. It didn’t matter if they served the same kind of food you were used to getting somewhere else; there was always something slightly different about the way each place worked and the options they offered.

This model of having options with multiple possible outcomes has been an unexpected influence in some of my three-dimensional design work. How one person chooses to construct their dream meal drastically changes from the next. So does the way someone might design, build, and photograph something with seemingly simple materials. In a series of participatory design experiments, I prepared two platforms for people to choose their own adventure in a hands-on capacity. I wanted to know if each contributor would break boundaries or stay within the borders. Would they choose to create in all black, all white, or both? Would they choose to create a symmetrical composition or use the pieces to construct in a nonlinear, abstract way? The materials were supplied, but the options were endless."