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--- public_diet [2008-07-08 09:47] – katerich
+++ public_diet [2008-07-15 12:59] – katerich
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-=== feasability study for sustained sustenance: feral trade cafe at http ===
+**feasability study for sustained sustenance: installing a Feral Trade Cafe at HTTP gallery, London UK, from autumn/winter 2008. A platform to present feral trade goods and develop protocols for HTTP refreshment service, in line with the other public communications of the gallery. This research emerges from an interest in the public diet of cultural organisations where foods for thought and consumption might crossover; and includes testing the regulatory limits and social expectations for a cafe, as well as preparing the resources, human and otherwise, required to run it. **
-===== HTTP structure, business plan, financial model =====
-Umbrella company is Catlow & Garrett (unincorporated partnership). Tax entity, overheads & PAYE.
-    HTTP and Furtherfield are not for profits with written constitutions.
+Feral Trade http://feraltrade.org
-    Furtherfield has an advisory board and is funded by ACE.
+HTTP http://www.http.uk.net
-    HTTP is a furtherfield.org project.
-    HTTP compound is zoned a s mixed / live-work.
-===== CAFE MOTIVES, STRUCTURE & INFRASTRCTURE =====
+===== CAFE motives, structure and infrastructure =====
-Motives for opening a cafe as an art project.
+  * Motives for opening a cafe as an art project.
-    HTTP is located in the back of beyond from the point of view of its visitors.
+Practical
-    Would like to give visitors to the exhibitions something more to chew on.
-    Sustenance and conviviality, space for contemplation and reading.
-    Elongate visit.
-    Useful service for local residents and studio occupants The neighbourhood is changing,
+. HTTP is located in the back of beyond (an industrial estate in the residential London borough of Haringey http://www.haringey.gov.uk) from the point of view of its public. A cafe would offer visitors something to chew on alongside the art: sustenance and conviviality, enriched space for contemplation, information and reading, and the oppportunity to elongate their visit.
-    it's a way of connecting with the local community that's more fluid and open, a softer
-    interface than the gallery. More everyday.
-    Promoting an alternate economy and ecology. So many shops deal with just money.
+. A service for local residents and studio occupants. The neighbourhood is changing - incoming small business and studios - the cafe would be an interface to that. A means of connecting with the local community that's more fluid and open, a softer and more everyday interface than the gallery.
-    Promote free processes and experiences other than those governed by hegemonic global
-    capitalism. An economy based on other peoples' activities and how you get from A to B.
+Conceptual
+    http: The cafe will demonstrate an alternate economy and ecology that promotes free
+    processes and experiences other than those governed by hegemonic global capitalism -
+    so many shops deal with just money. Feral Trade is an economy based on other peoples'
+    activities and how you get from A to B.
     Even at this small scale it has a polemic value.
+[[feral_trade_economy]]
-  * income scenarios
+Economic
-The cafe would be designed as financially self sufficient, although application for seed funding from ACE London agreed as ok. A feral trade project: kate to put in the application, Marc & Ruth to support.
+Profit is not a necessary motive - which opens up the operating territory considerably.
+Although stock should still pay for itself plus provide surplus for office consumption.
+Seed funding will be required for start-up equipment and utensils: HTTP or external.
-   Feral Trade runs at a fabulous loss.
+   feral trade:Feral Trade runs at a fabulous loss, in business terms.
+   It operates in an absence of the principle of least effort, excluding it from basic
+   market measures of success. The investment is in the network.
-  * hrs of operation, visitor patterns, winter plan
+  * hours of operation, visitor patterns, winter plan
-    Gallery hours are currently 12-5PM fri-sun, possibly extending to thurs.
+Gallery hours are currently 12-5PM Fri-Sun, possibly extending to Thurs.
-    Average 15-20 visitors per weekend. Mainly they arrive via Manor House tube.
+Average 15-20 visitors per weekend, mainly arriving via Manor House tube.
-    There is no cafe between the tube and HTTP although it is possible to take a
+There is no cafe between the tube and HTTP although it is possible to take a
-    detour to Costa Coffee. The portuguese cafe in the other direction has only
+detour to Costa Coffee, a commercial chain in the business mall on Green Lanes.
-    portuguese people in it.
+Portuguese cafe in the other direction has cheap and good espresso and a mainly Portuguese clientele.
-    The cafe would not necessarily be linked to shows.
-    The gallery has an exhibit approximately 3/4 of the year.
-    There are gaps between shows. In winter and gaps, the distributed library and feral
-    trade cafe could occupy the gallery space. People would visit for the library, or for meetings.
-    Library visitor numbers are low but it's the intensity of the experience that counts.
-    It would be a coup to overcome geography and keep the cafe open in winter.
+The cafe would not necessarily be linked to shows.
-    Without affecting global warming.
+The gallery has an exhibit approximately 3/4 of the year.
-    Patio bonfires worth looking into.
+There are gaps between shows. In winter and gaps, the distributed library http://www.http.uk.net/docs/exhib6/summer_of_folk.shtml and Feral
-    In winter it could be a kiosk, menu devised for creating heat or utilising refrigeration.
+Trade cafe could occupy the gallery space. People would visit for the library, or for meetings.
+Library visitor numbers are low but it's the intensity of the experience that counts.
+    http: It would be a coup to overcome London geography and keep the cafe open in
+    winter. Without affecting global warming.
+Patio bonfires worth looking into.
   * caretaking: human resources as they currently stand
-    When the gallery is open, there is someone always available to respond to visitors.
+When the gallery is open, there is someone always available to respond to visitors.
-    Sat and sun have more dedicated inviglation, fri can be more hectic.
+Saturday and Sunday have dedicated invigilation, Fridays can be more hectic.
-    Currently Ale (administration and coordination) does fri+sat, sun there is a paid invigilator.
+Currently Ale (Furtherfield administration and coordination) does Fri-Sat; Sundays they hire an invigilator.
-    * roles for cafe: preparation, service, cash-taking, cleaning up, stock management.
+Hazards: At what scale would the cafe interfere with other office activity?
-    Cafe service role should be rotated amongst present core personnel.
+    * roles for cafe.
-    This kind of distributed culture is integral to the way furtherfield works as a group.
-    Cafe service should be continuous with natural office life. Disinvest food service of
-    lowered status, service as a portal for communications.
-    Stock management would be 1 person's responsibility.
+**Service:** preparation, waiting, cash-taking.
-    Probably Ale who deals with this kind of thing anyway.
+Cafe service role would be rotated amongst present core personnel,
+this kind of distributed culture is integral to the way Furtherfield works as a group.
+http://www.furtherfield.org/about.php
+Cafe service should be continuous with natural office life, disinvesting refreshment service of any separate lowered status. [[householding]]
+**Management:** Feral Trade would remain involved in the politics and practicalities of supply. Day to day stock management would be 1 person's responsibility,
+probably Ale who deals with this kind of thing anyway.
   * physical setup: service and storage spaces, equipment investment, utensil choices
+Initial investment for equipment, utensils, presentation media.
+At a minimum, tables, chairs, umbrellas and signage to communicate cafe presence to the nighbourhood.
-    Decking. Sound the landlord out on this between rent payments.
+The decking along the side of HTTP building is potential cafe seating area. HTTP to sound the landlord out on this between rent payments,
-    Landlord relations are distantly friendly. There is a janitor who keeps a close eye
+Landlord relations are distantly friendly. There is a janitor who keeps a close eye
-    on the compound.
+on the compound. If landlord rejects decking plans, the parking spaces in front are
+formally HTTP's, included in their rent. Cafe could serve from here with guests seating themselves informally (on the decking). Decking receives no afternoon sun, another reason  to look at occupying parking.
-    If landlord rejects decking plans, the parking spaces in front are legally HTTP's
+    Liability would need to be thought through or ignored.
-    paid for with rent. Cafe could serve from here.
-    Liability would need to be thought through.
   * publicity
-    Cafe would have its own publicity strand, as a HTTP project.
+Cafe would have its own publicity strand as a HTTP project, as well as being promoted as background for exhibitions.
-    Also promoted as background for exhibitions.
-=====  REGULATION =====
+  * other models (positive and negative)
-Use existing premises regulations as a template/ jelly mould for evasion or compliance. Produce an Exceptions reading menu as research result.
+    Cafe Kino http://www.cafe-kino.com/about/index.htm, Bristol.
+    Run by a collective of artists etc who also run the Here Shop & Gallery over the road.
+    Many of their customers are from their extended social networks, probably from
+    within a few blocks radius. People go there for the sociability, decor, wifi,
+    good tea/coffee, cultural contagion plus pleasure of investing in own social
+    networks.
+    Leila's Shop, Shoreditch. Expensive bespoke groceries / cafe, review covers the for &
+    againsts: http://londonreviewofbreakfasts.blogspot.com/2008/04/leilas-shop-shoreditch.html
+===== HTTP structure  =====
+Umbrella company is Catlow & Garrett, a partnership and tax entity, deals with rent and overheads, PAYE etc.
+HTTP is a http://furtherfield.org project.
+HTTP & Furtherfield are not for profits, with written constitutions.
+Furtherfield has an advisory board and is funded by Arts Council England.
+HTTP is located in a business arena zoned as mixed use (typically integrating residential, retail, commercial and social amenities) / live-work.
+=====  REGULATORY STRUCTURE =====
+[[uk_premises_regulations]]
+    Produce a Regulatory reading menu as research project.
+    Use existing regulations as a template/ jelly mould for evasion or compliance.
+http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=jello+mold&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title
 =====  MENU =====
-  * curatorial guidelines
+   * Curatorial guidelines
-  * food sources: search existing http networks for producers
-  * new networks: city farm, green roof, guerilla garden and allotment relations
+   Coincide with HTTP core curatorial principles
-  * considerations: legal perimeters, shelf life, network relations
+   Promote Feral Trade experimental trader aims.
-  * integrate feral trade core aims
-  * source and transport via organisational networks, use current affiliations and transits plus promote new ones (grocery callouts to allied orgs)
+Food goods will be informationalised (onboard or on menu). Customer receipts can be A4 laser prints with a torrent of product information.
-  * standard form for visiting artists/residents
-  * limits of biscuit
+Selection will involve a biodiversity of criteria, none of which should be primary or exclusionary. Stock considerations include:
-  * commissioning foods, seasonality
-  * writeability: visitors can supply menu items?
+   - compliance with or skirting the regulatory perimeters [[uk_premises_regulations]]
-  * staples: coffee, tea, milk, sugar, cola, 'biscuits' incl. computer-biscuits, condiments incl. apple mush
+   - shelf life: to avoid sales incentive or waste
-  * emergency sale items
+   - the facility of the food item to [[common_products|host information]], including
-  * cultivation
+   - information on source, relations with land, embodied by the transport of its produce
-  * under the counter other
+   - information on carriage, network and delivery relations embodied by courier/s.
+   - seasonality, including transportation seasons
+   - localness
+   Expand understanding of localness beyond the territorial boundaries of the village
+   or nation state, to a model more in line with HTTP work environment, a shared set of
+   connections and navigable transit routes like the scale-free hubs of the internet.
+   * Fairness
+Ingredients and products with questionable ethics can be included, along with their
+source information. The main thing is to expand the product monologue to articulate a
+larger picture of the world it moves through.
+[[tea_from_bangladesh]] for example.
+Fair Trade in comparison limits its communiques to the the iconic picture of the farmer/producer - a restricted landscape - http://feraltrade.org/fair
+and one that reverses earlier breaks with tradition in visualising agriculture
+labour as a statement on rural poverty as opposed to example of pastoral virtue.
+Gleaning: François Millet 1857 http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~waste/timeline/story-pic1.htm
+Feral Trade takes food-labeling as an opportunity for diverse communications as  opposed to righteous boasting and the promotion of purity fetishes, such as the truth claims elevated origins and destinies (gourmet, organic, fairdom, health) propagated by the likes of fresh and wild.
+http://feraltrade.org/research/righteous_products
+[[breakdown_of_expenses]]: The cafe menu to also include itemisations in the transit of cash as witnessed in the goods' procurement: particularly obstacles, as the materiality of money in small quantities generally defies the idea of the smooth movement of finance across global networks.
+Read-write menu. Open to intervention from random vendors eg. customers can contribute
+menu items via peddling stock (sale, trade or gift).
+Economy of miniaturisation / smallscale. Enables hosting small batches/single items, ultra short seasons and microclimates.Menu should be easily updated and transmitted (database-driven) and include out of stock items - wishlisted, in negotiation or pending delivery.
+Courier process. Use moving social networks including known and funded travel to HTTP
+to deliver goods from afar, including store-bought ones. Documenting these journeys and relationships expands attention to food provenance beyond a gourmet-style fetishisation
+of origin or source, to the broader ecology of supply. Promote inter-organisational trade with artistic peers, local and foreign.
+Source producers or recipes from HTTP social networks, commission or collect artists' food projects, social connections to city farms or allotments, home cultivation
+(cake, jams, herbs, sprouts etc).
+Regulatory limits: Define and stock emergency food products; define emergency; outer limits of biscuit; cream teas.
+    Feral Trade staples start menu.
+    - Coffee from El Salvador
+    - Tea from Bangladesh (TBC)
+    - Cola from Bristol.
+    - Salt from Gujarat
+     Other organisational contenders
+    - Fo.am Brussels. Grappa, Latvian cured meats, computer chocolate biscuits.
+    - Mejor Vida Corporation, Mexico City. Hot chocolate
+    - Irational.org, Bristol. Food for Free apple mush
+   Challenge fresh+wild to a duel.
+===== OUTPUTS =====
+   proposed demo for mid-september ( jeremey bailey show)
+   possibly a harvest party / launch in oct
+   external: present at fo.am open sauces in brussels in november as part of public diet
+   disucssion
+===== SHORT VERSION =====
+Feral Trade cafe at HTTP gallery
+Feral Trade http://feraltrade.org
+HTTP http://www.http.uk.net
+HTTP gallery (media- and net-art) is a cultural minority in a mainly working
+class / cafe free residential area of NE London. The cafe will start off very small
+scale and is modelled as a means of extending natural office tea and coffee service
+to gallery visitors and locals. It is not motivated by cash profit, although goods
+should cover their own costs.
+All goods will be served with information about source and/or delivery,
+including the materiality of cash transactions performed to procure them.
+Visitors should be able to buy coffee etc either by the cup or in bags to
+take home.
+The feral trade courier process uses moving social networks, including
+known and funded cultural travel, to conduct international grocery
+trade by primarily social means. In documenting this process it expands the
+idea of food provenance beyond a gourmet-style fetishisation of origins, to
+broader relationships of supply.
+The cafe hopes to promote inter-organisational trade with artistic peers,
+local and foreign, and to expand a definition of localness beyond the
+territorial boundaries of the village or state.
-**OUTPUTS**
-  * local: table menu of contents / protocols / products; launch/event
-  * external: present at fo.am open sauces event in brussels in november as part of public diet strand; optional network/franchise