Art/Tech/Food

Art/Tech/Food, a curatorial research strategy to bringing biologists, environmentalists, food activists, and molecular gastronomists, together with artists to deliver urban agricultural strategies, bio-generative art, and open source software and hardware. My intention is to deliver new research with the goal of curating an interdisciplinary programme that might include exhibitions, symposia, and associated publication(s).

I also collate research resources here on Scoop.it/ArtTechFood.

I have spent time developing this research during curatorial residencies at Bogliasco Foundation, Helsinki International Artists program (HIAP) and Pixelache residencies in Helsinki, and at Santa Fe Art Institute as part of their food justice residency cycle.

Recent projects that deal with this topic include Agrikultura, a major public art event in Malmö, Sweden in 2017; the exhibition food nostalgia, at Radiator Gallery in Long Island City, NYC, 2016; Circuit of the Senses, a celebratory meal and participatory event conceived by artist Emilie Baltz at the Bemis Center in Omaha, Nebraska in 2014; GastroLabs, a program series developed with New Media Scotland for the Edinburgh Science Festival 2014; and the exhibition CONSUME at Gallery gallery@calIT2 at the University of California, San Diego in 2012.

Image: Shu Lea Cheang, DIY Eat, 2012

I am especially interested in developing a programming series that undertakes a critique of the commercialization of food production, where contemporary consumption is more likely to be watching people prepare food on television than spending time in the kitchen. Where discussion does happen it is often either inside the food justice movement, with little cultural context; or in an art context, with little discussion of policy, food justice, or broader cultural context of food production. Food is either designer-sexy, or a social justice issue, but rarely both. And there has been little exploration of the historical and contemporary trade routes of food and how they affect our cultural landscape.

As Maya Kuzmanovic from fo.am has written “Food is so much more than just a biological fuel. As a communal lubricant, food is one of the oldest cultural products, a symbol of hospitality and sharing. Over the entire plant, food rituals bring people together in gracious dances of giving and accepting, from simple family meals to festive banquets. …”

I also have the intention to provide a space to widen the discussion of our food systems to include environmental issues such as fracking, water sources, soil contamination, global warming, and labor (immigrant) exploitation. The inclusion of including artists and experts from diverse backgrounds is intended to broaden the discourse and hopefully move toward valuable and applicable models of discussion and action in a variety of different forms and to widen the dialogue to include people beyond those who currently can’t afford the time or the money it takes to negotiate this incredibly often obfuscated and confusing landscape.

As the gastronome Brillat-Savarin noted three centuries ago, “the discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.” Food is an essential product of our reciprocal, sustaining relationship with the environment. It is also one of the oldest cultural expressions, rooted in hospitality and sharing. As concerns for the planet and the quality of our life upon it intensify, there is no more immediate concern than that which we put into our mouths one or more times a day and the pressures these acts place on the larger systems that sustain us.