Xue Er (sure∙are) is a flâneuse, a neo-gastronome and an interdisciplinary experience designer. She came to MFADT with backgrounds in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, but has indulged herself in Art and Design. Her practice focuses on creating tangible, ephemeral experiences while exploring physical materials and fabrication techniques.

Situation, Adventure! is a freestanding wooden cubic shelf that embodies restraining urban structure. Bagels, hawthorn berry cakes, French fries and more … fill this shelf while their texture and presentation communicate the symbolic resemblances between food and urban structure. Their packaging bears a walking score that prompts the audience to an urban adventure. The audience is free to take a package of food, and go for a jolly stroll.

As a structural thinker, Xueer has been bothered by her highly methodical mind. She is bored by her rigid habits from which she tries to break away. To contextualize her situation in a general sense, she defines urban structures as the limiting frameworks that humans have created in the process of building a better city, which includes urban plans, maps, rules, standards, disciplines, regulations, routines, habits and social etiquette. She engages urban adventurers in a playful walking experience inspired by a community of practice named psychogeography, which was established in France by the Situationist International in the 1950s, and studies how individual feels in urban spaces.

Xueer believes that structural urban lifestyle plays an important role in changing the shape, packaging, preparation and preservation of food. For instance, eating on-the-go is a common experience for urban commuters and a result of urban structures. Therefore, she utilizes food as an inviting stimulus to remind her audience of the overlooked urban structures.