[-empyre-] ArtTechFood: Week 2

[shu lea cheang]

Hi, all...

While the week 1 dialogues have left many threads to follow up, I 
want to pick up certain comments
that Amanda and Renate made about tactical (btw. the term is relived 
in this year's transmediale in Berlin) media art projects, 
intervention and resistance related to food growth, access, 
distribution and ultimately participation and system that Marina 
Zurkow raised.

Amanda wrote, "as I drove from Omaha to Kansas City one day "I can 
confirm we grow both crops out here: corn AND soy."  With the two 
crops corn and soy, i cannot be overjoyed with the vastness of farm 
growth, these acres of fields in the States are contested zones for 
farmers and corporations.

In 2013,  I started seeds underground project,
taking the case of VERNON HUGH BOWMAN v. MONSANTO in the supreme 
court of the United States
(Washington, D.C. Tuesday, February 19, 2013) as starting point 
(http://seedsunderground.net/index.php?mod=germinate) amid the heated 
debate for the European Union to adopt a new seed policy, which 
favours the seed industry corporations by making all seeds subject to 
strict regulation. Seeds underground holds parties for seeds exchange 
and have exhibited in several venues. I also created a web interface 
to trace the seeds' distribution and growth,which sadly is not 
applied much as it does require certain level of participation.
http://seedsunderground.net/

As a 'poetic gesture' (a gesture we elegantly make) , I presented the 
project as a webart piece at the FIELDS exhibition (curated by Rasa 
Smite, Raitis Smits and Armin Medosch) with Rixc, Latvia in 2014.
http://fields.seedsunderground.net/index.php?mod=screen

Flash forward I find myself in retro future with a scenario/project 
titled "LOCATION ID: HOME" (written for Markthalle Neun, a food 
marketplace in Berlin) that I have yet to realized.
I post the scenario here for some bounce off---

"The year is 2030. After years of cross-breeding and genetic 
modification,  the GMO seeds have failed to produce. The vast 
farmlands are left barren.  The seeds saved from biodiversity era 
have gone underground, cultivated by the RESISTANCE farmers.

The GOVERNMENT pipes out synthetic liquid food for mass consumption. 
The citizens are entitled 1000ml liquid food bag per day for 
nourishment. The food DEPOTS, built like the old style gas stations, 
are set up for liquid refill. Smelless, tasteless, colorful liquid 
bearing names of old farm produces (i.e. apple, beans, carrots, 
dikons etc.) gives illusions of real food flavors.

Rise up troupes of RESISTANCE farmers who search the old time 
produces and recipes to re-create the smell of home cooking. They 
build themselves small mobile kitchens.  Cooking and moving
along secret alleyways, they bring back the smell of real food and 
the joy of eating. The food conscious citizens chase and follow the 
smell of home cooking. Gather around mobile kitchens, they share
meal time and stories together."

Here is a pdf with this proposal and some of my other food projects 
as introduction of myself.
http://mauvaiscontact.info/projects/foodartweekberlin/locationidhome.pdf

over
sl