[-empyre-] March 2016: FOOD/TECH/ART

[Amanda McDonald Crowley]

Thanks Renate for the great start, and for the invitation to participate.

As we also discussed as we set up this discussion topic, as Maya Kuzmanovic from fo.am <http://fo.am> has written “Food is so much more than just a biological fuel. As a communal lubricant, food is one of the oldest cultural products, a symbol of hospitality and sharing. Over the entire plant, food rituals bring people together in gracious dances of giving and accepting, from simple family meals to festive banquets. …” 

We are also interested to widen the discussion of our food systems to include environmental issues such as fracking, water sources, soil contamination, global warming, and labor(immigrant) exploitation. Food and art is currently something of a hot topic, but here we hope to broaden the discourse and hopefully move toward valuable and applicable models of discussion and action in a variety of different forms that might widen the dialogue to include people beyond those who currently can’t afford the time or the money it takes to negotiate this incredibly often obfuscated and confusing landscape.

And as the gastronome Brillat-Savarin noted three centuries ago, “the discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.” Food is an essential product of our reciprocal, sustaining relationship with the environment. It is also one of the oldest cultural expressions, rooted in hospitality and sharing. As concerns for the planet and the quality of our life upon it intensify, there is no more immediate concern than that which we put into our mouths one or more times a day and the pressures these acts place on the larger systems that sustain us.

In our first week of discussion, I'm excited to hear from Stefani Bardin and Marina Zurkow on their NYC Food and the City Mapping Project (I am actually presenting to their research group tomorrow in NYC - perhaps we can feed back on that as well!!); and from on Stefani and Hernani Dias' experiences undertaking artist residencies split between time in New York City and time on a farm in upstate New York. I am sure they will all also have things to say about other research they've been doing, either this week, or later during the month as their time allows!

best

Amanda

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> 
> Welcome to March 2016 on –empyre soft-skinned space:
> FOOD/TECH/ART Moderated by Amanda McDonald Crowley (Au, US) and Renate Ferro (US) with invited discussants
> March 3rd Week 1: Stefani Bardin (US), Marina Zurkow (US), Hernani Dias (ES)
> March 11th Week 2: Shu Lea Cheang (TWN, US, FR), Amy Lipton (US), Mary Mattingly (US)
> March 17th Week 3: Nicole Caruth (US), Leila Nadir (US), Jodi Newcombe (AU)
> March 24th Week 4: Natalie Jeremijenko (AU, US), Shilpa Rangnekar (IN)
> 
> 
> Welcome to the March discussion, ART/TECH/FOOD
> For our discussion on Art/Tech/Food, our hope is to identify and discuss projects and research that to bring biologists, environmentalists, food activists, and molecular gastronomists, together with artists to deliver urban agricultural strategies, bio-generative art, and potentially even open source software and hardware solutions that address our food systems.
> 
> We are especially interested in a discussion of projects and programs that undertake a critique of the commercialization of food production, where contemporary consumption is more likely to be watching people prepare food on television than spending time in the kitchen. Our observation is that where discussion does happen it is often either inside the food justice movement, with little cultural context; or in an art context, where discussion of policy, food justice, or broader cultural context of food production is almost entirely absent. Food is either designer-sexy, or a social justice issue, but rarely both. And there has been little exploration of the historical and contemporary trade routes of food and how they affect our cultural landscape.

--
Amanda McDonald Crowley 
Cultural Worker / Curator
http://publicartaction.net

@amandamcdc

food nostalgia is currently on view at Radiator Gallery until March 13

-emprye- currently moderating thematic email listserv conversation on the topic #ArtTechFood through March 2016