Is this Foodology?

February 12, 2007

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 linked necklace of peanuts, and a Chinese blouse covered in flattened cola cans have in common? And what can they tell us about the people who wear them and the cultures they live in? Are you really what you wear and eat?

Shimada creates surprising garments, multimedia projections and new rituals around food. These works are based on her investigations into what art, fashion and food can tell us about individual and national identity in our globalised, high-tech age. Shimada always makes her works in collaboration with others and often accompanies them with a short presentation or fashion show.

Image © Toyoko Shimada

FOODOLOGY by TOYOKO SHIMADA
14 February – 4 March 2007

Opening Wednesday 14 February, 19:00
Closing party Saturday 3 March , 17:00 – 20:00
Exhibition open Wednesday through Sunday,
12:00 – 18:00

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Chirashi sushi
chaotic and unbound

February 10, 2007

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 Solomonova

• round grain brown rice / long grain black ‘wild’ rice
• yaki nori / yaki nori in packages (sweet)
• kim chi
• fermented black beans
• sprout selection (tauge, sango, chinese prei, knoflook)
• homemade cucumber pickle
• homemade carrot pickle
• wasabi peanuts
• sesame seeds (white and black)
• ume boshi (pickled salt plums)
• gari (pickled ginger)
• steamed pumpkin or other steamed veg like broccoli shoots
• zee kraal
• served with
• marinated tofu OR kasseler rib OR smoked (dried) herring

Chirashi links:

• Martin Butler’s the Girlfriend Experience at Mediamatic
  January 26 - March 9, 2007
• Second Life
• Soy story: food subculture club visits an exhibiton of Romanian otaku culture
  (soybeans are inherently linked to otaku culture)

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Foodmiles design competition winners win some JUICE

February 6, 2007

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:

• Carbon Care (Wesley Richardson and Lisa Stockton from Ravenbourne College of Design and Communication
  Carbon Care is the design for an accredition and logistics system whereby food labeled with stickers at the moment of harvest accumulate foodmiles all the way to the point of sale. Consumers can trust this accreditation more than the numerous systems already in place because the actual distances will appear on the label and not represent merely an abstract concept of fairness, freshness or proximity.
• C02 Low (Lucy Denham from Northumbria University partnered with Fenwick Newcastle, a true northeast of England local department store)
  Although community supported agriculture (CSA) already offers wonderful solution for the reduction of foodmiles, as far as design competitions go, CSA box schemes are a dime a dozen. But in Denham’s C02 Low the boxes on sale at the (Fenwick) supermarkets were designed into menus, menus that even included traditional and heritage recipes. To be clear, the box that Denham designed with client/partner Fenwick is the recipe. I love this. In Denham’s January recipe boxes, the menu is even devoted to detoxing!
• Beeline (Dawn Danby, Jyoti Stephens, and Mary Rick, Bainbridge Graduate Institute, Washington US)
  The most interdisciplinary team in the competition designed a logistics system in which small farmers can plug their relatively small harvests into a food transportation network. The system is empowering for small farmers that usually don’t have access to largescale distribution systems, and thus miss out on increasing their market or getting their produce out to local supermarkets. Beeline lets farmers fill up the empty spaces in trucks already en route.
• The jury consisted of:
  Ulla Maria Mutaanen, Tony Dunne, Hilary Cottam, John Thackara, Dorothy MacKenzie, Ann Crawley, Susan Hewer and myself.

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.

• the RSA Design Directions Competition 2006-2007
• RSA Design Directions projects
• Dott 07 (Designs of the Time) blog

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