Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- future_fabulators:food_scenarios [2014-04-03 19:06] – [Collapse] nik
+++ future_fabulators:food_scenarios [2014-10-14 08:11] (current) – [Design process LateLab] nik
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-==== Food Scenarios ====
+==== Food scenarios ====
-'Four Generic Futures' from [[food futures]] scenarios...
+'Four Generic Futures' from [[food futures]] scenarios, looking at the relationship between food, well-being and the environment, based on basic [[horizon scanning]] and Causal Layered Analysis of change drivers. The scenarios were translated into two thematic food events.
-==== Continue ====
+The first event is a five course [[latelab_menu|tasting dinner]] (with the Discipline scenario split into two courses) for the Edinburgh Science Festival. We designed dishes that would illustrate the tastes, ingredients and processes likely to be used in food and cooking in each of the four scenarios. At the dinner, as a dish was served, the host proposed discussion topics/questions for that course, in the form of a short speech and a toast that used the dish instead of a slideshow to illustrate the scenario. The participants were asked to have a conversation about the scenario and the questions. They could take notes on the table cloth, guided by a 'table host' - a moderator who helped guide the discussions. The discussions were summarised at the dessert table.
-[[food scenarios continue|scenario description]]
+The second event is the opening of the [[http://www.z33.be/en/projects/future-fictions|Future Fictions]] exhibition, where the scenarios are translated into a [[future_fictions_menu|flow of finger-foods]], served in four phases, according to the scenarios.
-==== Collapse ====
-[[food scenarios collapse|scenario description]]
+=== Continue ===
-==== Discipline ====
+<html><a href="https://learnhowtomakesushi.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/designnori01a.jpg"><img src="https://learnhowtomakesushi.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/designnori01a.jpg" width="700"></a></html>
-After a series of extreme weather events, economic crises and pandemics, it was time for a disciplined descent. The local, national and transnational institutions from the top-down and grass roots initiatives from the bottom-up have began regulating and curbing excess in all aspects of life, from population control to amount and type of food consumed. The regulatory system has imposed taxes and fines enforced by the lifestyle police: production, distribution and consumption of food are highly constrained and regulated. This is the heyday of certification bureaucracy and micro-accountability mafia. People and products are traceable and information-rich, making use of the advanced internet of things. The "quantified self" has entered into the supply chain, making it possible for personalised diets and medicine to be delivered. Strict diets are followed as religions. Cuisine vegetal is one of the least strict regimes followed by many, in order to lower meat production. Meat and fish are still consumed, but rationed and used only as a luxury product.
+(photo credit: ...)
-Where top-down regulations aren’t effective, social enforcement is: neighbours and friends will report misconduct "for your own good", and punishments are readily accepted as character building. Supply chains are as short as possible, creating small community enclaves with strict immigration procedures. In these enclaves cradle-to-cradle practices are created and protected through customs and rituals. Seed exchanges are authorised and regulated through transnational social networks. Bali (and its traditional agricultural system) and Switzerland are depicted as ideal social organisations where community, religion and economy are tightly intertwined. Food is produced using sustainable farming technologies and ultra-optimised agro-ecology and smart feedback systems. The food supply chain is contained in a circular economy with recycling as a highly valued activity. Outside of the supply chain, environmental protection and rewilding are attempts to conserve what little non-polluted environment is left.
+[[food scenarios continue|Continue scenario]] where the world continues business as usual, organic agriculture is industrialised, free market reigns and consumers are addicted to tastebud stimulation...[[food scenarios continue|Read more]]
-{{>http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/13601636373/}} \\
-====Transform====
+=== Collapse ===
-[[/future_fabulators/food_scenarios_transform|Scenario]]
-{{>http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/13601624925/}} \\
+<html><a href="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02005/Da-Vinci-remastere_2005057i.jpg"><img src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02005/Da-Vinci-remastere_2005057i.jpg" width="700"></a></html>
+(photo credit: ...)
+[[food scenarios collapse|Collapse scenario]], a post "resource wars" environment, where industrial food systems and agribusiness collapsed... [[food scenarios collapse|Read more]]
+=== Discipline ===
+<html><a href="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-AjKw3TcLhwE/T63dubHVEkI/AAAAAAAAHzM/NSNxoEGHyFc/s1600/interior-design-photography-food-photography-tablescape-decor-kitchen-decor+%285%29.jpg"><img src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-AjKw3TcLhwE/T63dubHVEkI/AAAAAAAAHzM/NSNxoEGHyFc/s1600/interior-design-photography-food-photography-tablescape-decor-kitchen-decor+%285%29.jpg" width="700"></a></html>
+(photo credit: ...)
+[[food scenarios discipline|Discipline scenario]], where humanity learns from our mistakes and enforces/begins creating a culture of descent... [[food scenarios discipline|Read more]]
+===Transform===
+<html><a href="http://is.asia-city.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/item_image/tippling-club.jpg"><img src="http://is.asia-city.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/item_image/tippling-club.jpg" width="700"></a></html>
+(photo credit: ... / Tippling Club)
+[[food_scenarios_transform|Transform scenario]], a future thriving on closed-loop industries, living in green food-forests or Bucolicities, and enjoying "astro-gastro"... [[food scenarios transform|Read more]]
+----
+==== Design process LateLab====
+The scenarios above focusing on the evolution of the relationship between food, well-being and the environment are designed by Nik Gaffney, Rasa Alksnyte, Michka Melo and Maja Kuzmanovic in April 2014. In this experiment we tested two techniques from our [[background|background research]]: the CLA (or causal layered analysis) and "four generic futures". CLA helped us narrow down the world-views and cultural myths behind a forest of change drivers that influence the future of food (such as antibiotic resistance, diet cults, soil degradation, financialisation of food markets, etc.). The three dominant but co-existing myths appeared to be the infinite growth, hybrid openness and "small, slow and local".
+To construct the scenarios we used "the four generic futures" technique from the Manoa School. The person behind this method is Jim Dator, one of the head figures of the futures field. Dator suggested that in most (or even all) scenario planning exercises, people come up with variations on the four archetypal futures: continue, collapse, discipline or transform. In our case, the Continue scenario was about increasing efficiency of food production, distribution and consumption; the Collapse scenario happened post "resource wars", evolving into a strange hybrid of decadent debauchery and food scarcity, culminating in consensual cannibalism and suicidal tendencies in the "last supper club"; Discipline bifurcated into a bureaucratic certification and audit heaven populated by quantified selves and a network of rather conservative Transition Regions; and finally in the Transform scenario people live in Bucolicities - metropolis-sized food forests with biomimetic drones delivering delicacies grown in labs on Earth as well as the moon.
+We then translated the scenarios into the types of tastes, ingredients and processes that we could use in Scotland in early spring, and created the sketch of a five course [[latelab_menu|tasting menu]], that we refined with Ginny Hunter, the chef who prepared the food in Edinburgh. The final menu consisted of a wild garlic soup, a beetroot and blue cheese tart, fried potato-skins with seaweed, vegetarian shepherd’s pie, bubblegum panna-cotta with absinthe truffles, served paired with local beers and whiskeys. This was the first time that we created a food event where we didn’t cook ourselves. It has proven feasible, although we concluded that we prefer being in the kitchen ourselves…
+Instead of cooking the dinner, Nik and Maja were hosts of the evening. We invited the participants to imagine being at a gala dinner, where delegates from different futures came to speak to them about food in the times in which they lived. As the budget for the event was tight, Maja role-played each of the delegates and proposed toasts to resilience of food and cooking, to surviving the collapse of food and agribusiness, to understanding our limits and eating within them, to continued intensification of taste and farming, and finally to openness and transformation of food systems.
+As with the original [[:/open_sauces/|Open Sauces dinner]], we used the dishes to illustrate the scenarios and asked the participants a set of questions that would help them get deeper into the different worlds, as well as reflect on what would need to happen in the present in order for them to end up in the different scenarios themselves.
+==== Design process Future Fictions ====
+We adapted the menu to a different season and different context. The research and design are presented as part of FoAM's [[future_fictions|Futures Lab]], as part of the exhibition.