mermade museum is an interactive offline experience through the form of an interactive museum and "messtaurant" that serves garbage as food — like sushi made with plastic bags, and more — that translates to instaworthy photos in order to raise awareness on the repercussions of improper waste disposal on the oceans, and ultimately, us — human beings.Â
The main message of this awareness project relies on karma. Whatever contaminates the ocean, contaminates you. Thus, "Karma's A Beach." This is a full circle for this museum as all proceeds earned by the museum will be returned into the community through donations to cleaning initiatives.
The MUSEUM EXPERIENCE
room one: trash-ushi room
room one, the purple room, is the first room our customers will be welcomed with. Roomful of sushi made out of human-size ocean-made garbage sushi. Complete with 8 ft tall cigarettes that will blow smoke from time-to-time. People can take pictures in front or sitting on the installations!
room two: plastic jellyfish room
room two, the blue room, was inspired by sea turtles. One of turtles' main food are jellyfishes however, as the oceans become more populated by plastic bags, a lot of sea turtles confuse plastic bags as jellyfishes. In this room, there will be floating plastic bags alike jellyfishes. This room is full of whimsy and magic-like characteristics.
room three: mermade messtaurant
order. shoot. share. room three, the yellow room, is the highlight of the whole experience. For the fooDIES, order your food made out of garbage, take a picture and share it on social media with our hashtag #karmasabeach. Our menu is extensive from booty roll, a delectable sushi that takes form in wrapped cigarette butts, to dumpling, a real dump from the ocean filled with single-use packaging encased in plastic bottle and aluminum cans.
The Menu
the mermade museum menu highlights the delicious meals you can order at the restaurant. Cigarette butt sushi? Check. Smoothie made out of straws? Check. Mussels stuffed with plastic? Check. This menu is all cohesive with the tone of the messtaurant's whimsy and tongue-and-cheek approach. Menu names like "Dakilli," "Straw Smoothie," "DUMPling," and more are ready to be ordered and taken a picture of to share on your various social media accounts. The price comes in the form of collective years of the ingredients' chemical breakdown. This pushes forth the idea even more as to how drastic this plastic waste and ocean pollution us humans are creating.
The INFOBOOK
Did you know? By 2050, the ocean will be equal parts fish and plastic. Well, with the mermade museum infobook, you will be informed about various statistics and information relating to ocean waste and pollution. This informational booklet will enlighten you about the status of the world’s oceans in relation to oceanic trash and waste.  This booklet will also cover preventive ways on to how to help when it comes to reducing oceanic waste starting from one’s self. It will encompass topics like microplastics, single-use plastics, wildlife destruction and more.
The SOCIAL MEDIA
the mermade museum social media is an accompanying tool for the museum experience. The social media identity includes various types of posts such as the menu posts where we highlight a menu item from our messtaurant. Infographic type post where various panic-inducing statistics are going to be turned into a visual. Thirdly, tips and tricks to counter waste creation and living a more sustainable life. Lastly, cheeky product designs that coincide with the museum's tongue-and-cheek tone and whimsy. Ideally, we will also try to highlight various visitors on our social media. You can visit our social media: www.instagram.com/mermademuseum
MERMADE MUSEUM: IN DEPTH
A design solution involving collaboration with Greenpeace and the Department of the Philippines, Mermade Museum is an interactive museum/restaurant experience that raises awareness to tourists visiting the Philippines, and locals alike, on improper oceanside waste disposal and its repercussions. With Millennials and Gen Z'ers in mind, Mermade Museum targets the social media culture as the main vantage point for an offline experience connected with an online presence. With this solution, as it involves travel, I wanted to design a solution that combines fun and tongue-in-cheek while hitting informational statistics and preventative ways of reducing oceanside littering. Thus, Mermade Museum comes to fruition, a three-room museum, where all the installations are made out of (mer) ocean trash. Mermade Museum's third room, Mermade Messtaurant is a mock restaurant that serves food made out of garbage — such as DUMPling, MESSels, STRAW smoothie and more. This hits on the Millennial targets of susceptibility to sharing on Instagram and the foodie culture, conclusively hitting a wider audience and awareness. According to my research, millennials are more susceptible when a memorable experience involved, social media sharability and in support of social good. These are the three main points that I had to check off in order to call my project a success, which I think I have.Â
Mermade Museum is a three-room interactive museum with installations created with trash collected from the ocean. Through isometric design, I have created a three-room plan in order to show the repercussions of ocean waste caused by littering. The first room is a sushi room, where human size sushi are created using ocean trash, including 7 ft. tall cigarette posts. The second room is the jellyfish plastic room — floating plastics in the air reminiscent of what sea turtles see, confusing plastics as their main source of food, the jellyfish. The highlight of the experience is the third room, Mermade Messtaurant — where museum visitors will have a restaurant experience where they serve ocean waste/trash as food: i.e. "DUMPling," single-use packaging enclosed in plastic bottle, "Booty Roll," cigarette butts wrapped in aluminum can made like a sushi roll and more. I've effectively told a story through encompassing every part of the narrative with the tagline "Karma's A Beach" and designing various assets that go along with the overall vibe of the whimsical, cheeky yet informational vibe of the whole project, both through imagery and through copywriting — apparent on the isometric, menu, infobook design.
There were two main reasons for this project: One, the state of our ocean is in dire situation. According to my research, by 2050, the oceans will have the same mass of plastic in relation to fishes. There are tons of garbage patches all over the world in gyres — one, being the size of two Texas states. Microplastics are eaten by various marine biology and which enters the food chain ultimately ending in our very own bodies. The other reason was that, in 2018, Boracay Island in the Philippines, a major tourist hub, closed down for 6 months ultimately causing loss of livelihood and source of income for local people which is why I wanted to create a design solution that raises awareness to tourists (and local people alike) about repercussions of improper waste disposal and littering to help prevent more ocean pollution and help save the environment but also help the locals to not lose their source of income.
Through both primary and secondary research, I came about various ways to raise awareness in terms of design. Based on the interviews I made and articles online, I realized that experience is prioritized by my target audience, the millennials. I also wanted to steer away from creating something cliché like a poster series, I wanted to go out-of-the-box which is how I came up with an interactive museum but involves food. My target audience relates travel with both cuisine and experiences, which makes an interactive museum/restaurant where they can take photos and share on a variety of social media platforms, the most effective way to inform the audience about the cause. Influencing millennial audiences needs to be memorable which I think can be done through Mermade Museum as it is both fun yet informative.