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

Category archive for: Food + Design

Back home

This weekend:
Massive Dutch protests against the obliteration of cultural funding!

Dutch text below is not a direct translation. Imagine this: you're an internationally recognised Dutch cultural institution of art/design/media culture. You have a substantial collection; media art, landscape art, but also paintings/ sculptures/ installations/ photography/ film/ design object... Read more

Posted on June 25, 2011 14:01

Phytoremediation at ARCAM
The shipwreck
contains the ship

The Shipwreck Contains the Ship, Urbaniahoeve installation at ARCAM in conjunction with Farming the City Saturday 7 May at 16.00h, is the closing event of the Farming the City exhibition at ARCAM. URBANIAHOEVE's phytoremediation installation on ARCAM island, titled 'The Shipwreck' will be dism... Read more

Posted on May 6, 2011 23:09

Do AND talk

Some folks are all talk and no do, but this last year, I've been all do and no talk. Apologies for my extended absence and may this post mark a movement towards striking a balance between the two. Foodscape Schilderswijk: kids initiating the planting of the Wellington Hof Plum Orchard In th... Read more

Posted on 21:32

DIY Mmmmuseum of
Oven Typologies

Our first tamped earth oven lacks some structural-integrity Hey there lovers... of food-system infrastructure, this weekend (June 26 & 27) from 13.00h we will pilot the DIY-Mmmmuseum of Oven Typologies (Dutch acronym is DHZMOT) at Art at the Pool during the Sloterplas Festival in Amsterdam. (Li... Read more

Posted on June 25, 2010 15:35

Late blooming

Pots made with paper from junk mail. Now that all the folks are gone I can start using my window sills again to get the kitchen garden started. Filled with potting compost and seeds. That crazy climate delivered us a bitter and lengthy winter, such that seasonally, we're 6 weeks behind ... Read more

Posted on March 28, 2010 17:49

The real dirt on
Farmer Wim’s clogs

Guess you could nail a shingle to any old shoe... On a recent trip to the border between rural and urban Amsterdam I got a look-see into the tamping-technique of Farmer Wim Bijma. He produces organic leafy greens that you can order online and pick up on site. Despite it's reputation, it's a bea... Read more

Posted on October 29, 2009 11:04

A time to meet,
a time to compost
your jack o’ lantern

Time to Meet jack o' lantern gifted to the UM dinner by Alowieke of Transition Town Utrecht. When Guus Beumer, artistic director of the Utrecht Manifest: Biennial for Social Design, asked me what I would like to contribute to the 2009 edition, I responded with a programme called Ultimate Meetin... Read more

Posted on October 14, 2009 16:31

Foodscape Schilderswijk,
Den Haag’s CPUF

A scenario for planting espallier-style fruit trees in the Schilderswijk. Illustration by Jacques Abelman. As part of STROOM Den Haags (Centre for Art and Architecture) multi-year programme FOODPRINT, I have been commissioned to design a foodscape. Actually I am designing a Continuous Producti... Read more

Posted on September 8, 2009 20:21

Amsterdam Osdorp,
land of milk and honey

Farmer and city slickers assemble in Osdorp On the very westernmost edge of Amsterdam is a living example of rural fantasy, a stone's throw from densely built, urban Osdorp and Geuzenveld/Slotermeer. In preparation for a series of events and future projects in the area, Young Designers & Indust... Read more

Posted on August 20, 2009 21:42

Speaking of the Future…
how ’bout that market?

Market of the Future poster-child Juli Mata You're probably wondering how the future turned out. Last weekend's was a culmination of the test-phase with FREEHOUSE's de Markt van Morgen / the Market of the Future, in Rotterdam Zuid's Afrikaanderwijk. Lucky Mi Fortune Cooking has been experimenti... Read more

Posted on June 15, 2009 17:45

Rethinking the
Market of the Future

Market folk, people from Rotterdam's Afrikaanderbuurt and artists renew one of the Netherlands' largest open-air markets, the Afrikaandermarkt. My involvement in this mega project is one of the reasons I've written so little in this blog the past year. So much to write about, but no time to writ... Read more

Posted on June 5, 2009 23:35

Slim Pickins
restaurant review

Ground-elder ravioli & goutweed pesto with locally foraged kale flower, spinach and mint Within hours of the posting Slim Pickins was already fully booked. Plagued at its very inception with limited seating, the urban kitchen garden restaurant located on the edge of a raised bed was forced to d... Read more

Posted on May 5, 2009 14:03

Slim Pickins,
the occasional garden restaurant

Slim Pickins garden staff help with the weeding Studio Culiblog is proud to announce the opening this Sunday of it's new minimalist concept restaurant in Amsterdam Noord. Slim Pickins is an outdoor micro-eatery situated on the edge of a raised bed, in an urban kitchen garden, serving up the occ... Read more

Posted on April 21, 2009 23:49

And what will fuel the landscape of the future?

The answers are: the Edible City & Permaculture This week I attended a dinner at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), smack dab in the exhibition called MAAK ONS LAND, which literally translated means, MAKE OUR LAND but which was translated by the NAi as the hopeful, SHAPE OUR COUNT... Read more

Posted on March 6, 2009 19:42

A happy new year
for the fruit trees

Woodcut for the Jewish arbor day Tu b'Shvat, from the Minhogimbukh Amsterdam 1722, recently adapted by Scott-Martin Kosofsky, image used entirely without permission. There's nothing like a religious calendar sporting multiple 'new years' to remind us that we were once deeply connected to our fo... Read more

Posted on February 10, 2009 15:58

Cheerfully sipping from the
petri dish of life

A symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast (aka SCOBY) fermenting a jar of sweetened tea into a healthy drink called kombucha. Recently my possee and I attended a party at the opening of an Amsterdam design event. Free drinks were flowing because the party was heavily sponsored by a distilled bev... Read more

Posted on February 4, 2009 19:10

Water kefir is like
Fresca for hippies

Water kefir brewing in the weak, mid-winter sun. Maybe it started because all this New Austerity had me peaked to produce bubbles outta thin air. Maybe it's because I just kick on growing stuff, even if that stuff is only a colony of yeast and bacteria. As a whole foods enthusiast and professio... Read more

Posted on January 27, 2009 15:58

Permaculture *relaxtivist

A thicket of rocket growing in the irrigation canals and dried mulch rotting on the beds. Relaxed permaculture is what I've decided to call this gardening technique, tailor-tuned to my garden and me. One of the principles of permaculture is to keep the ground covered at all times with either pl... Read more

Posted on January 12, 2009 14:56

Michel Blazy’s microbial art

A pond of fermenting tea with fungal lily pads The lacto-fermentation of cabbage wasn't the only kind of microbial art and design going down in St. Etienne at last month's biennial. Michel Blazy created a most beautiful live installation of Givernyesque pools of living kombucha colonies. For th... Read more

Posted on December 18, 2008 12:44

Utopia is near

Back in the saddle after a fun and hugely productive work period at the Saint-tienne Internationale Binale du Design where I was invited to show the Lucky Mi Fortune Cooking project in the City Eco Lab. John Thackara brought together a burgeoning toolshed of projects that demonstrate how commu... Read more

Posted on December 9, 2008 17:52

Survival through dehydration

Looks like rat tails and bones. Guess I'm just getting visually prepared for the future! Well if the whole world goes to pot (and not in the good way) at least I will have dehydrated exactly 2 days worth of essential parsley root. And if I keep at it, soon I'll have saved enough celeriac chips ... Read more

Posted on November 4, 2008 20:39

Communaut Choucroute, Community Pickle,
a proposal

Jangdok are onggi or earthen jars storing jang (condiments) such as gochujang (chili pepper condiment), doenjang (soybean paste), ganjang (Korean soy sauce) or kimchi. Image from Save the Dinosaur's photostream and used entirely without permission. The following is a statement about food storag... Read more

Posted on October 30, 2008 16:48

A Kimchi Sunday

Turnip and turnip leaf kimchi in a pool of sauce shaped like the silhouette of a kimchi-lover Community/Communaut Choucroute is one of my proposals at the City Eco Lab in Saint-tienne for the Design Biennial this November. Designing resilience into urban food systems is essential, and one way... Read more

Posted on October 27, 2008 11:49

Ayn Hawd bread story

At the beginning of my first week in Ayn Hawd, if Noga and I opened our windows just right, we could create a lazy crosswind that would exhale her curtains, just as it inhaled mine. Exhale mine, inhale hers. Slow puffs of curtain with the power to close eyelids. Exhale hers, inhale mine. But ... Read more

Posted on September 2, 2008 23:02

Saosan’s carob syrup

A sloppy fig branch roadblock fuels fires burning purposefully under two steel pot stands, each supporting a blackened aluminium cauldron. You can feel the heat halfway down the street where unpredictable gusts of smoke inevitably find your eyes, turn your head for a breath of, oh the parfum of ... Read more

Posted on August 26, 2008 10:47

Soft landing in Ayn Hawd

The tickly prickly pears of Ayn Hawd Two days ago I arrived in Ayn Hawd, to start producing my farmer's market installation for the One Land project and Platform Paradise exhibition. In 2004 the Palestinian village of Ayn Hawd received widespread recognition when architect Malkit Shoshan (NL/IL... Read more

Posted on August 23, 2008 14:36

Kids loved us,
loved our food

Chef Paul says 'Eat your pumpkin RotiRol' Lucky Mi, purveyor of in-situ snacks, enjoyed its new-kid-on-the-block status and dished up some Surinamese fusion food in our spanking new snack laboratory at the Zuidoost Kwakoe Festival this weekend. We dodged tropical size raindrops, gave the lab it... Read more

Posted on July 8, 2008 22:09

Butternut Brutalism

Upon returning to the new kitchen garden the next day, I felt that the parcel along the fence just wasn't speaking to me and I traded her in for the plot next door. Giddy with the even newer digs, I noticed what I had failed to see the day before, namely, useful in-situ building materials, in th... Read more

Posted on July 1, 2008 13:19

New digs in the polder circle

As of yesterday I became a multinational allotment holder. These are my new digs at Amsterdam Noord, a 7 minute bike ride from my flat, a 3 minute ferry ride from the mainland, and 4 steps off the ferry. Although the parcel seems to have some extreme shade, soil compaction and charm issues, th... Read more

Posted on June 26, 2008 14:44

Lucky Mi Fortune Cooking

Local sk8r boi enjoys the coconut cassava bonbon with newly aromatic herring. In the past year I've been working with community food entrepreneurs; cooking studios, restaurants, small food stores, and local vegetable growers strengthening networks to innovate snacks that could be sold locally. ... Read more

Posted on June 19, 2008 22:33

A F.A.S.T. food market

Gifted organic olive oil and za'atar from Ein Hud, an unrecognised village in Israel Sustainability issues aren't only about green, sometimes they're even more fundamental than that. Food and food systems are an integral part of that story because food and agricultural policy is commonly used f... Read more

Posted on May 27, 2008 0:23

Butterflies in my stomach

The date and milk-based cocktail 'representing' the Afrikaanderwijk is not pictured here because although scrumptious, it was not photogenic. That's always a problem with dates. Kruiskade Blossom Cocktail - chrystanthemum tea drinks in tetrapak - organic chysanthemum flowers - sour cher... Read more

Posted on May 8, 2008 6:10

Imagining Kate

="Come Back Kate film still by Quirine Rack and Helena Muskens used entirely with permission The Kate Bush Party at Mediamatic this Friday evening promises give-us-a-twirl dress-up, lighters-in-the-air sing-a-long and a generous format screening of Quirine Racké and Helena Musken's poignant art... Read more

Posted on April 9, 2008 23:36

In situ
Seitan innovation

Dutch Seitan Designers at workshop Last Sunday was the final day of Platform 21's Cooking and Constructing exhibition, and amidst the fiery debate and seitan design workshop, no one expected that any true innovation would take place. But due to the emphasis on show and do, I had to rush through... Read more

Posted on April 3, 2008 20:53

Glutinous Maximus II,
Seitanic Lab Meat recipe

Loaves of Seitan during steaming process Like the soybean, like bread, like fish, like wine, like salt, seitan is part of the utopian food group, foods laden with morality, infused with ritual, oozing with culture, drowning in history. Seitan is desperately in need of appropriation from its ass... Read more

Posted on March 28, 2008 17:59

Haute cuisine
bitterbal snack innovation

From golden-brown to white, spinach-gorgonzola, mango-mirin and thai coconut bitterballs From the original creator of Amsterdam's Supperclub (the real one, not the other one), Chef Thor is now ready to debut his latest collection of bitterballs. The bitterbal is a 'traditional' Dutch drinking s... Read more

Posted on March 23, 2008 12:50

A weekend from sugar rushes

Sugar graffiti from Shane Waltener's Cooking and Constructing workshop last Sunday at Amsterdam's Platform21. Growing up, my family referred to sugar as White Death. Consequently I don't have much of a sweet tooth and I really prefer pickles or anything fermented to sweets. But in a period of m... Read more

Posted on February 20, 2008 16:37

Cooking and constructing,
food as a real design platform

Vegetable ink production and 'pantonization' by Daniera ter Haar and Christoph Brach Platform 21's Cooking and Constructing is food as a real design platform, in a real design platform. There is reason to applaud this very real design laboratory which will be open for the coming 8 weeks. The wo... Read more

Posted on February 12, 2008 23:24

Subjective Atlas of Palestine
and also of food

Just another beautiful picture of Palestine by Majdi Hadid, used entirely without permission Say 'Palestine' and the first thing that pops into your head probably isn't an image of undulating hills speckled with date palm oases and creased with a babbling brook, or an image of lush olive orchar... Read more

Posted on January 13, 2008 20:37

I wanna French my USB wine

Heq yeah, USB wine is real. Read more

Posted on December 6, 2007 2:38

How stuff is made, even the food kind of stuff

Techno artist and design engineer Natalie Jeremijenko, in Amsterdam last Friday presenting at the STIFO/Sandberg workshop showed us a wiki site where her NYU students were sharing information about how common products are made. Among the foodstuffs, shrimp, fortune cookies and eau de vie. For e... Read more

Posted on November 5, 2007 1:52

A cellar for your salts

Three in a set in shades of greys, For different salts strewn different ways, And well aware of shadow play. Earlier this month at the Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Show, Liora Rosin showed-off stunning and tactilicious salt cellars in porcelain. No wonder she graduated cum laude. Read more

Posted on November 1, 2007 0:44

Kouba Libre
Supermarket Babylon

Homemade ice kouba in a sponsored freezer In the grain section there are more than 20 sorts of rice and then there's a formidable bulgur department. How often does one get to write that, formidable bulgur department, but there is one. Never mind the lack of competition, Babylon is hands down th... Read more

Posted on October 26, 2007 0:59

Water, pure thyself

Trickle-down theory, solar disinfection water purifier by Herman Lijmbach, image used with permission Gawd knows I'm a sucker for water purification, so even though there was a goodly handful of other wonderful work and pretty thingy-thingies at the Design Academy Eindhoven's graduation show la... Read more

Posted on October 23, 2007 16:55

Carbohydrates and conviviality

Pasta shapes developed by Valentina de Lorenzis What is it about carboydrate-rich food that just screams conviviality? Valentina de Lorenzis, a recent graduate of the Man and Humanity Masters at the Design Academy Eindhoven, chose pasta to investigate this very subject. The result was an array ... Read more

Posted on September 10, 2007 12:39

Robo Cocktail

Erik Hobijn poses with the Mothuh of all mojito makers At last weekend's party for the youth of today, artist Erik Hobijn demonstrated the explosive power of his handheld cocktail launcher and created some unexpectedly delicious chunky style mojitos. Officially speaking, this cockbot is more of... Read more

Posted on September 3, 2007 21:31

The arabised ‘H’ of EL HEMA

Joann digs EL HEMA packaging, image of the chocolate letter 'H' by Mediamatic used entirely with permission EL HEMA, an Arabised version of the Dutch five and dime, will be selling chocolate letters for the disputably secular Dutch winter holiday Sinter Klaas. The Arabic letters are in one of t... Read more

Posted on August 25, 2007 10:49

Dude, lay off my
ubiquitous Dutch weener

Dutch postage stamps with images of quintessentially Dutch design items incl. HEMA tea kettle Lapin. Producers of the objêts du design Ne'erlandais paid big dosh to have their stuff immortalised. In Dutch media circles this time of year is called 'Cucumber Time'. Supposedly all of our real jou... Read more

Posted on July 27, 2007 14:33

Made in Transit,
growing food
in a waste of time

Mushrooms of the future are grown in situ in transit When it comes to the food supply, there's a lot of waste to go around. Agata Jaworska, a recent masters graduate from the Design Academy Eindhoven, has designed a way to use the time and space associated with transportation to grow fresh prod... Read more

Posted on July 10, 2007 16:43

Controversial snacks and mild-mannered symposium

Wandering Banquet's wheat meat pice monte was not just another secret ingredient. You hear me talkin'? Dutch fire marshalls the world over will be unhappy to read that last Friday's Food, Art and Science symposium at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht was filled way beyond capacity. Lab meat is a... Read more

Posted on July 7, 2007 12:58

Superused food,
2012 Architects host
a freegan dinner

Freegan designers trapped in a 2012 iPod ad. Normally when architects invite you to dinner they don't advertise that they're planning on serving you trash. Completely unbound by convention, 2012 Architects held a freegan dinner last night and were rather loose-lipped about the fact that they di... Read more

Posted on July 4, 2007 14:20

Lab meating Friday
food, art & science
snacks & symposium

Listen up, why am I pink? Tissue Culture and Art's Extra Ear 1/4 Scale, used entirely without permission As part of the exhibition Genesis, The Art & Genomics Centre at the University of Leiden, in sweet collaboration with the Centraal Museum in Utrecht have organised a symposium on the subject... Read more

Posted on June 28, 2007 12:03

Exhibition the Edible City
at the NAi-M closes

The Edible City exhibition at the NAi-M (the Netherlands Architecture Institute) has finally come to a close. Showing more than 40 architectural, design and urban planning projects, the exhibition was about food systems and the urban environment. There was a time when city-dwellers could more or... Read more

Posted on June 27, 2007 15:09

Butternut Update
week 24

What, you don't like my hand job? Some might call it karmic justice, but I think that I have homosexual butternut squash growing in my living room. Not that there's anything wrong with that and maybe we can chalk it up to to the fact that I can't tell the difference between the male and female ... Read more

Posted on June 18, 2007 13:04

Nasturtium shots

A toast, "To a nasturtium leaf holding a pearl of vodka" What a pretty shot. The nasturtium leaf tastes like horseradish and is a perfect pallet cleanser after the wodka di buffalo. And because it's just a drop, you can keep on drinkin'. Read more

Posted on June 14, 2007 8:58

Wonderfood in Arnhem

Rosemary and violet candy by Katja Gruijters, photo by Annemarieke vd Broek used entirely with permission Last Saturday I was invited to experience the opening dinner of Dudok in Wonderfood. Café Dudok is a very forward thinking brasserie that during the Arnhem Fashion Biennial participates in... Read more

Posted on June 8, 2007 19:02

Life ain’t no picnic

The annual Queen's Day cleaning uncovered this old art skool photograph. It's 1993 and the lady-colleagues and I are in a picnic performance sporting a red and white checked gingham ground cloth with built-in shorts. Read more

Posted on April 30, 2007 13:07

Bloom where you are planted

Planting edible flowers amongst sunflower seedlings House plants are so passé. And I've really had it with demure windowsill herb gardens. They're visually predictable and don't yield significant crop for my leafy green rich diet. Because I'm involved with projects that involve me recommending... Read more

Posted on April 23, 2007 15:07

Doors 9 JUICE reports:
Delhi’s Sabzi Mandi

That's vegetable market to me and you. At the crack of dawn, dodging raindrops the size of wild peaches, a small delegation from the Doors9:JUICE urban agriculture workshop heads out for a reconnoitre of Delhi's Sabzi Mandi, the wholesale vegetable market off Mehrauli-Gurgaon Rd. Through a haz... Read more

Posted on March 15, 2007 12:15

Psycho-gastronomy
and the
‘Honey, I’m home from Delhi’
breakfast

The kimchi chapati breakfast What could be a more obvious combination than the ubiquitous flatbread of India flavoured with a dash of pro-biotic pickle juice from the Heimatt? Rolling out a kimchi chapati breakfast seems just the ticket to remind me that I'm home from Delhi. It's been a whirlwi... Read more

Posted on March 9, 2007 10:49

Chai styling

This is how chai wa served to the Doors 9 JUICE urban agriculture delegation at Delhi's Sabzi Mandi (wholesale vegetable market). Beautiful and neat. Read more

Posted on February 28, 2007 22:04

The Edible City

For the past few months, together with colleagues Hans Ibelings and Anneke Moors, I have been curating an exhibtion for the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Maastricht titled the Edible City. The exhibition is about the urban environment and its food systems. There was a time when city-dwel... Read more

Posted on February 26, 2007 2:26

Is this Foodology?

Image © Toyoko Shimada Now if I can just decide which 'ology' to go to tonight dot dot dot. Here's the press release of Toyoko Shimada's Foodology exhibition that opens tonight at Platform 21. My other 'ology' doesn't have a press release: What do a Chinese dress decorated with macaroni, a li... Read more

Posted on February 12, 2007 15:01

Foodmiles design competition winners win some JUICE

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 fle... Read more

Posted on February 6, 2007 13:18

DOTT07
(Designs of the time)
Urban Farming

Urban regeneration, edible grow zones, kitchen playgrounds and town meals In many communities fresh fruit and vegetables are hard to source and expensive. There's little awareness of local food production, the possibility of growing your own and next to no supply chain for existing producers ... Read more

Posted on January 27, 2007 9:25

The amazing
Sprout (loves) Ikebana
contest

Choreographer Martin Butler's winning entry for the category, 'Fleugalit (bamboo leaf, sango sprouts, rock chives, pea shoots) The amazing Sprout (loves) Ikebana contest was carried out in honour of chef de cuisine Tal Amitai, who was not able to be with us this last week due to the loss of hi... Read more

Posted on January 10, 2007 13:02

Sprouts love ikebana

My neighbours won the 2007 Sprouts Love Ikebana competition for the categories: 6 and under, 5 and under From more than 300 images of the sprouts love ikebana competition this weekend at the Grow Yer Own Dang Food sprout restaurant, these are the first, last and middle ones. We had winners in m... Read more

Posted on January 9, 2007 1:55

Bone up on ikebana

The key to Ryusei-ha ikebana is the approach known as the 'faces of plants.' The arranger is not bound by set rules of composition but encounters the plant materials directly, approaching them with a new attitude. Image used entirely without permission. To celebrate the natural beauty of sprout... Read more

Posted on January 4, 2007 4:46

Dang Freegans, eatin’ our trash, stealin’ our women

See what I mean? Used entirely with permission Actually, Freegans don't so much steal our women as eat our trash. And, not so much our trash, but perfectly edible food and produce that shops and restaurants end up throwing away because the products have passed their sell-by dates. As of tod... Read more

Posted on January 1, 2007 2:39

Birthday picnic au plein air for proximi et intimi

Transporting the cream puffs using a porcupine Several years ago I sort of got stoned and envisioned myself making a grand birthday party entrance with a giant croque en bouche tower perched on my head. Croque en bouche is traditionally a wedding or baptism cake for French people, constructed o... Read more

Posted on December 25, 2006 3:17

Compost heaps of the rich and famous

The Seyferth house sports a compost heap! Well, at least of the famous. This is a shot of a compost heap in the back of the in-process home being built by designer/architect Christoph Seyferth. Although the house isn't even finished, I was pleased to see that the happening kitchen infrastructur... Read more

Posted on December 14, 2006 14:45

Cooking with supermodels

Kitchen Princess Erga always wears herbs, Seattle Public Library carpet by Petra Blaisse Maybe it's the phermones, maybe it's the new varieites of sprouts, (fennel, coreander, sunflower and pea shoots to name a few) but it seems that everything just keeps getting more beautiful at the Grow Yer ... Read more

Posted on December 1, 2006 10:33

Illustrious guests

International art critic Paul Groot inspects the work. Photo by illustrious guest Joost Bottema used entirely with permission Turns out we lingered a bit too long on Mateusz Herczka's phermone exuding garden furniture, but man oh man did we have a good time last night at the sprout restaurant, ... Read more

Posted on November 19, 2006 12:51

Micro-green restaurant officially open

Jeanette likes sprouts because they're seed-related Roqn-ass opening btw. Merveilleuse! The dear friends showed up, the food was devoured, folks asked for seconds (and got them without a wince) we danced our tocheses off until 4ish and the whole thing ended sloppily with bottles of bubbles (cav... Read more

Posted on November 4, 2006 18:56

Food-related fashion chez Maison Walter van Beirendonck

Image from Walter van Beirendonck's Autumn 2006 - 2007 Ready to Wear collection, used entirely without permission. A more thorough look at the Autumn-Winter 2006-2007 Ready to Wear collections reveals a tongue in cheeky awareness of global food politics and a welcome activist approach towards h... Read more

Posted on October 25, 2006 9:25

Design in Marketing and Communication

Image of design and trend guru Li Edelkoort blurred and playfully purpled almost beyond recognition, but not entirely. Used without permission. Whereas I'm sure that any of us can come up with a sexier conference title, it's thrilling to see so much food related design and sustainability in the... Read more

Posted on October 24, 2006 0:56

Eat at a brothel during
Dutch Design Week

Photo: Gero Asmuth, hot guy: Erasmus. Image courtesy of la Bolleur designer-initiators Jannink, vdHijden and vVugt and used entirely with permission. Design Academy Eindhoven students Timon van der Hijden, Zowie Jannink and Steie van Vugt have transformed the former brothel, La Bolleur into a r... Read more

Posted on October 17, 2006 0:00

Colour codes in food and other things

It's perfectly intuitive. Some examples of colour coding in food, packaging and branding: Red - beef, raw meat, animal protein, amonia Blue - dairy, raw fish, methelated spirits Green - vegetables and fruit Yellow - poultry, bleach Pink - pork, gay Vegetable distinctions: Gr... Read more

Posted on October 16, 2006 11:56

Get the vault out:
Vote for la Voute!

Image courtesy of La Voute Nubienne. What does nubian vaulted architecture have to do with food culture? It's a stretch, but suffice it to say that good cookin' and eatin' requires stable communities and a stable kitchens requires a stable roof. My buddies at La Voute Nubienne are among the 13 ... Read more

Posted on October 6, 2006 8:13

Meat meeting tonight

Image of First Nations Sioux ladies drying meat used entirely without permission. That should read meat fight tonight! If you're interested in the meat industry and are currently in Amsterdam, you're not going to want to miss tonight's Cross-thinking about Sustainability - Rethinking the Global... Read more

Posted on October 5, 2006 13:37

Party heartily in the street. Got more street party typologies?

Image showing a 1977 street party commemorating Queen Elizabeth's silver jubilee from the Westbank Heritage website copyright Rex Features Limited 2005. Image used entirely without permission. Urban greening projects may be a dime a dozen, but we want to experiment with connecting small communi... Read more

Posted on October 4, 2006 10:53

Got a cutting-edge food-related project?

A Delhi street kitchen doing booming business The deadline for the DOORS OF PERCEPTION 9 conference on “JUICE” (FOOD, FUEL, DESIGN) has been extended until September 30, 2006. If you think your project should be included in this event, please put your nose to the grindstone forthwith. Any q... Read more

Posted on September 18, 2006 15:23

Perfume food, Comme des Bonbonieres

Image of Comme des Garçons parfums from Reluct design blog and used entirely without permission. Pardon. I don't want to be, but I am. I'm a big fat fan of Comme des Garçons parfums. The smell of smoke and incense makes Kyoto my favourite, followed by the girlier Carnation, and Shiso. And to ... Read more

Posted on August 24, 2006 13:15

Inside the secret gardens of our culinary elite

Photograph of photographs of Terrance Conran and his cabbages by Peter Dench at Telegraph Magazine Last Saturday's Telegraph Magazine reported on the kitchen gardens of twenty-three of England's most 'reknowned' 'cooks'. From several versions of elaborate kitchen gardens, to modest collectio... Read more

Posted on August 19, 2006 12:22

The object of my guestimation

The Design Habit estimation tool by Srishti Bajaj, photo courtesy of the designer and used entirely with permission It's about 'this much', you gesture wtih your fingers, and the person you're talking to is supposed to get a sense of what you're talking about. We're all wired differently. I'm a... Read more

Posted on July 7, 2006 17:27

Wasteware, it’s everything but the squeal in food recycling

Rhubarb and carrot waste formed into little bowls for cherries and berries. Man and Humanity masters graduate Matthijs Vogels has developed a beautiful but extreme way to eliminate food waste by turning it into plates and bowls. At last week's Design Academy Eindhoven MFA show, Vogels exhibited... Read more

Posted on July 4, 2006 12:30

Autistic chocolate

Chocolate hat © Ann de Gersem, photo C. Baele A pink chocolate teapot hat? Pistachio green chocolate teacups with fur and pink foil? Dark chocolate whiskey snifter crystal ashtray bling? Ann de Gersem, a Design Academy Eindhoven MFA student graduates today with a collection of chocolate object... Read more

Posted on June 29, 2006 1:20

Here as the Centre of the World, in terms of food

Here as the Centre of the World banquet with local food from Twente and Overijssel. Guests getting giggly on the bubbly. A week and a half ago, my colleagues and I at the Dutch Art Institute (DAI), were in the throes of an international symposium on 'all things periferal' for artists and mediat... Read more

Posted on June 3, 2006 14:35

Wild tomatoes
for guests

Here's a clump of wild tomato seedlings with the exploded tomato skin still attached to the roots like a busted balloon. They're popping up everywhere in my kitchen garden, and to think I wasted all that time fussing with the foetuses and a propagator when they can grow themselves all by their l... Read more

Posted on May 7, 2006 10:02

Street food waste = street food packaging

Fish and chips: image of street food packaging concept 'IHO', © Païvi Kovanen, Eva Arts and Caroline van Teeffelen 2006, used courtesy of the designers. Please respect student work, contact culiblog for updates. (This is the second in a series of entries about the Street Food Workshop develop... Read more

Posted on April 29, 2006 11:06

Street food collaborations: Streetberry!

Streetberry design by Michou-Nanon de Bruyn, Milou Melis and Monica Ruiter. Please respect student work, contact culiblog for updates. Nothing says wing-flapping like a subversive strawberry. Students Michou-Nanon de Bruyn, Milou Melis and Monica Ruiter have developed Streetberry as their final... Read more

Posted on April 24, 2006 9:27

Lace, about faceAnder Kant

Image of white chocolate lace detail, by Katja Gruijters, courtesy of the designer Aren't these edible lace tiles by food designer Katja Gruijters exquisite? She makes them out of caramel, white and milk chocolate and sand tart. They feature prominently in an exhibition on contemporary lace des... Read more

Posted on April 6, 2006 1:47

Will swap saliva for a home, the problem with bird nest soup

image from Hoko Studio design collaborative, cropped and used entirely without permission If you were a bird living in a cave in Thailand, would you rather 1. live in a house of your own making constructed from spit and twigs? or 2. live in a gifted house made out of recycled cardboard? Bad que... Read more

Posted on April 4, 2006 20:58

Food Force computer game: force-feeding inaccurate notions of the causes of hunger

images courtesy of Food Force, &copy United Nations World Food Programme - all rights reserved Two weeks ago I sat dumbfounded watching a French TV report in which journalism students practiced reporting a fictional national emergency. I couldn't help but think that what's cool about practice ... Read more

Posted on March 17, 2006 18:26

Git yer frites on! What we’ll probably all be wearing this Fall

Daddy's favourite outfit from the Jeremy Scott Fall 2006 collection, image used entirely without permission This is no time to bitch I mean kvetch about healthier alternatives. Just plunk down a honqin' load o' dosh and git yer dang frites on, bi-haa-whoa. It's New York designer Jeremy Scott's Fal... Read more

Posted on February 24, 2006 0:24

Drawing Restraint, dragging ambergris

Occidental Guest (bride), production still from Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9, copyright Matthew Barney, used without permission Filled with expectation unsuitable for the company of friends, clutching a fat wad of tickets between fingers reeking of quickly eaten, mediocre sushi, it is u... Read more

Posted on February 5, 2006 20:51

Grow yer own dang food
(part 1)

Image of sprouting bread courtesy of Cygalle Shapiro Back in the eighties, as a student at the University California at Santa Cruz, I lived in a vegetarian commune with a bunch of hippies. As hippies, we produced our own sprouts, yoghurt and salsa fresca for the entire commune, approximately th... Read more

Posted on January 30, 2006 11:52

Rural design conference scheduled for September 2006

(above: Wheatfield, a large public work by Agnes Denes, image copyright Agnes Denes) Chapeau to John Thackara at the Doors of Perception blog who reports today about a rural design conference scheduled to take place September 4-7 2006 (somewhere) in the UK. Just have a look at what's being develop... Read more

Posted on January 21, 2006 11:47

Guixégasbord Food Facility

(image Marti Guixé 2005) If you haven't already made a reservation for the opening of Marti Guixé's Food Facility at Mediamatic (Post CS) this Sunday evening, you are plum out of luck because I just made the last one. You can still make reservations for every Friday and Saturday ev... Read more

Posted on October 29, 2005 13:10

Oh to utter the words, food design…

Well it's about bloody time! Coinciding with all manner of design events going on right now in Amsterdam, the Stedelijk Museum hosted a symposium titled Food Design at the ubiquitous Club 11, featuring three speakers and three completely different interpretations. Marije Vogelzang (Proef) is do... Read more

Posted on September 28, 2005 9:03

Products without words

The kitchen line, KLOP by freshly graduated product designer, Sharon Geschiere from Arnhem. Klop in Dutch means to beat or whip (as in whipping cream). These products instruct the user in how to use them. Plus they're black. And white. Read more

Posted on July 1, 2005 16:32

Lolly Lab

Imagine my delight last Sunday when the very first work I see at Arnhem's exam show is Bas Kools' Lolly Lab. Kools is a freshly graduated designer with fine prospects for the future. He'll attend the RCA in London next year. What I loved most about Kools' setup was that he put the prototypes ... Read more

Posted on June 28, 2005 10:21

The most beautiful teapot in the world

Finally I can sit quietly with the several thousand images from my trip to Delhi and reflect. WIth a pot of tea. A giant pot of tea. In a teapot from Bihar. Bought at a craftsmarket in Delhi. Made from dark clay, neither fired very hot, nor glazed. Looks like it was fashioned by a caveman wi... Read more

Posted on April 11, 2005 13:36

Joe Colombo is dead as a doornail

Here is the amazingly efficient Joe Colombo designed mini-kitchen. R.vT. tipped me to him a few days ago as I lamented giving up my superflous spoon collection. As my most informative blog-reader to date, R noted that Joe Colombo designed the Alitalia tableware in 1970. Apparently the 'MINI-KITC... Read more

Posted on December 1, 2004 18:41

Recipes for Geese and People
and Jeremijenko’s OOZ

2nd course of the dinner for geese and people was called Vegetable Matter Underfoot, (salad carpaccio) visually references the trampled vegetation at the sides of ponds and lakes where waterfowl like to hang out. Natalie Jeremijenko is developing a zoo without cages, and she's calling it 00Z. T... Read more

Posted on March 2, 2004 17:50


culiblog is a registered trademark of Debra Solomon since 1995. Bla bla bla, sue yer ass. The content in this weblog is the intellectual property of the author and is licensed under a Creative Commons Deed (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5).