Food, food culture, food as culture and the cultures that grow our food

Chirashi sushi
chaotic and unbound

February 10, 2007

Chirashi sushi as served at Martin Butler's the Girlfriend Experience
Chirashi sushi as served at Martin Butler’s the Girlfriend Experience

Chirashi sushi is ‘casually mixed’ sushi, unbound, informal, slightly chaotic. For Martin Butler’s Second Life-emulating, audience driven Girlfriend Experience at Mediamatic, I’m calling it DIY sushi. Chirashizushi (ちらし寿司, lit. scattered sushi) is the sort of sushi that you make at home everyday, not fancy, the sort of dish that your mother would make for you if you were an otaku kid, and she thought you needed some nourishment after spending too much time in Second Life. Traditionally chirashi sushi is eaten annually as a part of the Doll Festival, celebrated in March in Japan. It’s almost March, we can’t wait for March, Martin’s show runs until March.

Chirashi sushi as served chez Solomon with pumpkin and homemade kimchi
Chirashi sushi as served chez Solomon with pumpkin and homemade kimchi

Chirashi Sushi Solomonova

Chirashi links:

debra at 11:33 | Comments (1) | post to del.icio.us

Foodmiles design competition winners win some JUICE

February 6, 2007

rsa judging portal
Image of judging panel used with non-tacit permission

Tuesday, one week ago today was devoted to a most ironic activity. I swam back and forth to London to jury the shortlisted entries of an international competition to find design solutions to the problem of foodmiles. And by swam, I mean flew. In an airplane. The competition was organised by the RSA (Royal Society of the Arts) and Dott 07 (Designs of the Time) and the prize was a trip to a design conference in New Delhi called JUICE.

In collaboration with Dott 07,the RSA Design Directions developed two student projects, each dealing with a specific sustainability challenge; food, and tourism. I was honoured to be a part of this international jury judging the food sustainability challenge. The idea was for designers to work collaboratively, and for non-designer team members to learn about the design process by working with designers.

It was fantastic that the seven shortlisted designers brought such a wide range of solutions to the table with their projects. Once the entrants have their projects online I will link to them from here, but here are brief descriptions of the 3 winning entries:

The winning Design Directions teams have been awarded a trip to participate in Doors of Perception 9 (JUICE) which takes place in India 1 - 5 March 2007. Later in 2007, the winning teams will participate in an international design summer camp at two (so far secret) locations in North East England. Here, the teams will further develop their food and sustainability ideas for these specific locations, working both with local partners and with design mentors organised by Dott 07. The results of the design camp will be featured at the Dott 07 Festival in October 2007 in Newcastle and Doors of Perception 10, which takes place during the festival. The best projects will be celebrated at the Creative Community Awards which concludes Dott 07.
dott 07 logo

debra at 13:18 | Comments (1) | post to del.icio.us

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