[-empyre-] future scenario workshops and the imagination

[shu lea cheang]

dear Marina

thanks for sharing the Taste Drought, yeah, it rhymes well...
I send you back another scenario - DRIVE BY 
DINING (2002). this did get realized in Amsterdam 
with 300 public members dining amidst the rise of 
free public wifi movement.
http://mauvaiscontact.info/projects/drivebydining.pdf

DRIVE BY  DINING

This is the year 2030 .
Biochips have inscribed into our flesh.
Mobility has colonized the body.
We are tracked and traced.
Our presumed freedom of movement is at stake.

Skywork lifted up the sky, sweeping webcam  SEEING  and STREAMING.

Calls for DIS-CONNECT is surging.

DIS-CONNECT.

In light of the DIS-CONNECT insurgence,  the government  has seized
the control of food supply line.

WE  CONTROL THE FOOD. WE CONTROL YOU.
SERVICE STATIONS are set up to pipeline STANDARD meals-
EAT.
MEAT. VEGG. FISH.

This is the year 2030 . 
No one SERVES.
The government  supplies ROBOT service in dining  facilities.
the ROBOTS DELIVER.

In the wasteland of wireless dis-connection,
What is left is encrypted, coded electronic sound beeps.
TRANSMIT and ABSORB.
The diners ORDER. The robots DELIVER.
ALL in encrypted coded electro RAVE.

HERE COME THE REBELS.

DISTRIBUTE and LIBERATE.

EAT NO MEAT. NO VEGG. NO FISH.

The REBELS attempt to interrupt the food supply line. They DRIVE around in
radio toy trucks to distribute COCO (hand-made chocolate at its best )
to diners.

HAVE COCO. GET ON THE ROAD. ON THE LOOSE.

The ROBOTS would eventually REVOLT.

(signing off)
sl



At 11:02 AM -0500 3/18/16, Marina Zurkow wrote:
>----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>Shu Lea,
>
>This is so wonderful.
>
>I co-led a series of workshops with geographer 
>Valentine Cadieux in 2014 in Minneapolis, around 
>the idea of eating the future.
>The workshops were hosted by the U of MN and Northern Lights.
>We engaged about 25 participants (artists, 
>writers, food historians, architects), who 
>rotated in and out over 2 days, culminating in a 
>"food prototyping" session at the U of 
>Minnesota's Nash galleries.
>Food prototyping consisted of procuring 
>ingredients and stuffs that could approximate 
>the scenarios we invented.
>We then cooked and assembled these edible 
>prototypes together, and retold out stories to 
>the group and whomever else happened to be 
>wandering through the galleries.
>
>What would a picnic look like in the future?
>The workshops consisted of  picking from 7 
>constraints out of paper bags - weather 
>conditions (drought, heat, rains, 
>unpredictability), food types (big ag, foraging, 
>ultra-local, store-bought), picnic hosts 
>(aliens, corporate boosterism), picnic context 
>(a child's birthday, a government event), 
>material availability (used petrochem, scavenged)
>
>One of the scenarios we developed rhymed very well with yours:
>
>Our subject was Taste Drought.
>Corporations control all tastes and flavors.
>364 days a year, you eat bland tasteless food 
>(unless you are rich). It is illegal to 
>cultivate your own gardens or anything wild.
>On your birthday, a corporation sends you a flavor pack.
>Of course a black market for wild tastes springs up.
>Dime-bag sellers of wild mint leaves lurk in every alleyŠ
>
>We prototyped this together by serving millet 
>tacos, then making big mac communion wafers 
>(yes, the whole thing minus the wrapper put in a 
>food processor, then dehydrated) and bagging 
>wild mint...
>
>pics 
>here: <http://o-matic.com/ssc/futTop.html>http://o-matic.com/ssc/futTop.html
>
>Marina
>
>
>>On Mar 15, 2016, at 5:13 AM, shu lea cheang 
>><<mailto:shulea at earthlink.net>shulea at earthlink.net> 
>>wrote:
>>
>>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."
>>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>empyre forum
>empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
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