Ambiguous Standards of Serving: Teaglasses
Food packaging almost always recommends a serving size, but what is the serving size of a drink that has been shared without packaging for centuries? For çay in Turkey, it is the narrow-waist-wide-brim tea glass, but not all are created equal either. This spectrum of tea glasses of various sizes and shapes highlights that the serving measure is as fluid as the contents. In the centre is Incebelli, designed by Koray Özgen to be an average of around 40 tea glasses produced by Pasabahçe[1].
[1] Teaglasses are exhibited with the gracious permission of Paşabahçe.
“İncebelli” means “slim-waisted” and is used to define the shape of the glass associated to the popular Turkish tea glass. As the traditional shape of the tea glass and its cultural significance are deeply rooted, Koray Ozgen believes that the possibilities of reinterpreting the shape is limited. Starting from this point, Koray Ozgen offers a more universal adaptation (approach). He takes graphic datas of the profiles of a hundred slim-waisted tea glasses manufactured by Paşabahce and gets an “average curve”. The final shape of “The İncebelli” tea glass is obtained by this “average curve” and is thus proportionally adapted to the other types of glasses: shot, liquor, whiskey and beer glass.
This crate investigates the ambiguous standards of serving through the fixed measure of tea glass. Tea glasses define an ambiguous and relative measurement system through its varying volume and the sizes of its complementary containers such as tablespoon or water glass.
This crate contains a selection of tea glasses produced in Turkey. This will illustrate the ambiguous nature of the product through dimensions and proportions.