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--- public_diet [2008-07-08 10:36] – katerich
+++ public_diet [2008-07-14 08:07] – 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, for autumn/winter 2008. A platform to present feral trade goods and examine the protocols of refreshment service as accessory to the other public communications of the gallery. The research emerges from an interest in the public diet of cultural organisations where foods for thought and consumption might align; 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 & 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 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 - a business park 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.
-    it's a way of connecting with the local community that's more fluid and open, a softer
+Elongate visit.
-    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.
-   Feral Trade runs at a fabulous loss.
+  * income scenario
-  * hrs of operation, visitor patterns, winter plan
-    Gallery hours are currently 12-5PM fri-sun, possibly extending to thurs.
+Slow start.
-    Average 15-20 visitors per weekend. Mainly they arrive via Manor House tube.
+All transactions logged and accounted for.
-    There is no cafe between the tube and HTTP although it is possible to take a
+The cafe would be designed as financially self sufficient, although seed funding needed for start-up equipment and utensils.
-    detour to Costa Coffee. The portuguese cafe in the other direction has only
-    portuguese people in it.
+   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
+   capitalist measure of success.
+   The investment is in the network.
+  * hours of operation, visitor patterns, winter plan
-    The cafe would not necessarily be linked to shows.
+Gallery hours are currently 12-5PM Fri-Sun, possibly extending to Thurs.
-    The gallery has an exhibit approximately 3/4 of the year.
+Average 15-20 visitors per weekend, mainly arriving via Manor House tube.
-    There are gaps between shows. In winter and gaps, the distributed library and feral
+There is no cafe between the tube and HTTP although it is possible to take a
-    trade cafe could occupy the gallery space. People would visit for the library, or for meetings.
+detour to Costa Coffee, a commercial chain in the business mall on Green Lanes.
-    Library visitor numbers are low but it's the intensity of the experience that counts.
+Portuguese cafe in the other direction has cheap and good espresso and a largely Portuguese clientele.
-    It would be a coup to overcome geography and keep the cafe open in winter.
+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 [[http://www.http.uk.net/docs/exhib6/summer_of_folk.shtml]] 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.
+    http: It would be a coup to overcome geography and keep the cafe open in winter.
     Without affecting global warming.
-    Patio bonfires worth looking into.
-    In winter it could be a kiosk, menu devised for creating heat or utilising refrigeration.
+Patio bonfires are 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 there is an outside 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 accessory to natural office life, disinvesting refreshment service of any lowered status. Instead take tea and coffee service as an interpretation of aristotlean idea of [[householding]]: production for use instead of for gain.
+**Management:** Feral Trade would remain involved in the politics and practicalities of supply. Weekly 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 will be necessary (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 potentially prime 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).
-    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.
-    Also promoted as background for exhibitions.
+Also promoted as background for exhibitions.
+  * other models (positive and negative)
+    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.
+    Mnay of their customers are from their extended social networks & probably live
+    within a few blocks. 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. Review covers the for & againsts pretty effectively:
+    http://londonreviewofbreakfasts.blogspot.com/2008/04/leilas-shop-shoreditch.html
 =====  REGULATION =====
-    Use existing premises regulations as a template/ jelly mould for evasion or
+[[uk_premises_regulations]]
-    compliance. Produce an Exceptions reading menu as research result.
+    Use existing regulations as a template/ jelly mould for evasion or compliance.
+    Produce a Regulatory reading menu as research project.
+===== 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 / live-work.
 =====  MENU =====
@@ Line 97: / Line 126: @@
    Coincide with HTTP core curatorial principles
-   Promote Feral Trade experimental aims.
+   Promote Feral Trade experimental trader aims.
-   Goods will be informationalised (onboard or on menu)
+   Food goods will be informationalised (onboard or on menu)
-   Stock considerations: regulatory perimeters, shelf life, network relations
+   Selection will involve a biodiversity of criteria, none of which should be
+   primary or exclusionary. Stock considerations include:
-   A biodiversity of criteria, none of which will be primary / exclusionary.
+   - compliance with or skirting the regulatory perimeters [[uk_premises_regulations]]
-   Seasonality, localness, information on source, information on carriage,
+   - shelf life: to avoid sales incentive or waste
-   trade relations with source, trade relations with courier.
+   - the facility of the food item to host information, including
-   Expand conception of local beyond village fortress model
+   - information on source: relations with land embodied by the transport of its produce
+   - information on carriage: network relations, trade relations in delivery, embodied by courier/s.
+   - seasonality, including transportation seasons
+   - localness
+   Expand understanding of localness beyond the territorially bounded, landlocked
+   village model, to a shared set of connections and navigable transit routes,
    like the scale-free hubs of the internet.
+[[common_products]]
-   Possible ethicless ingredients will be involved.
+   Ingredients and products with questionable ethics can be included, along with their
-   Undercut profit-motivated product fascism of fresh 'n' wild.
+   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]]
+    Compare with Fair Trade which limits its communiques to the the iconic picture of
+    farmer/producer/collective, a homogenous landscape
+http://feraltrade.org/fair
+    reversing 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
-   Read-write menu. Open to random vendors eg. customers can contribute
+http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~waste/timeline/story-pic1.htm
-   (sell/trade/gift) stock.
+   Feral Trade opens up food-labelling as a space for communication, as
+   opposed to righteous boasting and promotion of purity fetishes.
-   Economy of scale. Enables hosting small batches/single items. Ultra seasonality.
+http://feraltrade.org/research/righteous_products
-   Menu should be easily adaptable and transmissable
-   perhaps database-driven.
+   Undercut profit-motivated product constructions, elevated origins and destinies,
+   the type of truth claim propagated by fresh and wild.
-   Courier process. Use moving social networks including known / funded travel to HTTP
+[[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.
-   to deliver goods from afar, even shop-bought ones. Journey and relationship
-   documented, expands attention beyond gourmet-style fetishisation of origin.
+   Read-write menu. Open to intervention from random vendors eg. customers can contribute
+   menu items via sell/trade/gifting stock.
-   Inter-organisational trade with peers, local and foreign.
+   Economy of miniaturisation / small-scale. Enables hosting small batches/single items
+   ultra short seasons.
+   Menu should be easily adaptable and transmissable, probably database-driven,
+   and include a section for items not in stock: wished for, in negotiation or pending.
+   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 on food provenance beyond a gourmet-style fetishisation
+   of origin or source, to a broader ecology of supply.
+   Promote inter-organisational trade with artistic peers, local and foreign.
-   Commission or collect artists' food projects: eg. Food for Free apple mush on toast
+   Challenge fresh+wild to a duel.
-   Source producers from HTTP social networks (cake, jams, herbs, sprouts)
-   incl city farm and allotment, home cultivation.
+   Source producers or recipes from HTTP social networks,
+   including city farm and allotment, home cultivation (cake, jams, herbs, sprouts).
+   Commission or collect artists' food projects.
    Regulatory limits: Define and serve emergency food products; outer limits of biscuit.
+   Cream tea variations.
    Feral Trade staples start menu.
@@ Line 145: / Line 198: @@
   -    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
 ===== OUTPUTS =====
-   proposed start time mid-september ( for jeremey bailey show)
+   proposed demo for mid-september ( jeremey bailey show)
+   possibly a harvest party / launch in oct?
    local: table menu of contents / protocols / products; launch/event
    external: present at fo.am open sauces in brussels in november as part of public diet
    disucssion