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--- public_diet [2008-07-11 07:11] – 81.179.15.206
+++ public_diet [2008-07-12 11:46] – katerich
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== feasability study for sustained sustenance: Feral Trade Cafe at http gallery ==
+**feasability study for sustained sustenance: installing a Feral Trade Cafe at HTTP gallery, london uk, autumn/winter 2008. A platform for presentation for feral trade goods and protocols; and an exploration of food service as communications system, this research involves testing the regulatory limits and political conceptions of food provision and service, and 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 Harringay [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harringay]] - from the point of view of its visitors.
-    it's a way of connecting with the local community that's more fluid and open, a softer
+A cafe would give exhibition goers something more to chew on such as
-    interface than the gallery. More everyday.
+sustenance and conviviality; enriched space for contemplation, information and reading.
+Elongate visit.
-    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, it's is a way of connecting with the local community that's more fluid and
+open, a softer and more everyday interface than the gallery.
+Conceptual
+    Demonstrate an alternate economy and ecology: so many shops deal with just money.
     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.
+    capitalism. Feral Trade is an economy based on other peoples' activities and how you
-    Even at this small scale it has a polemic value.
+    get from A to B. Even at this small scale it has a polemic value.
-  * income scenarios
-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.
+Financial
-   Feral Trade runs at a fabulous loss.
+[[feral_trade_economy]]
+Profit is not a motive, which opens up the terms of engagement considerably.
-  * hrs of operation, visitor patterns, winter plan
-    Gallery hours are currently 12-5PM fri-sun, possibly extending to thurs.
+  * income scenario
-    Average 15-20 visitors per weekend. Mainly they arrive via Manor House tube.
-    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
-    portuguese people in it.
+All transactions logged and accounted for.
+The cafe would be designed as financially self sufficient, although seed funding agreed as probable.
-    The cafe would not necessarily be linked to shows.
+   Feral Trade runs at a fabulous loss, in business terms.
-    The gallery has an exhibit approximately 3/4 of the year.
+   It operates in an absence of the principle of least effort,
-    There are gaps between shows. In winter and gaps, the distributed library and feral
+   excluding it from basic capitalist forms of success.
-    trade cafe could occupy the gallery space. People would visit for the library, or for meetings.
+   The investment is in the network.
-    Library visitor numbers are low but it's the intensity of the experience that counts.
+  * hrs of operation, visitor patterns, winter plan
+Gallery hours are currently 12-5PM Fri-Sun, possibly extending to Thurs.
+Current 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
+detour to Costa Coffee, a commercial chain in the business mall on Green Lanes.
+(Portuguese cafe in the other direction has cheap and good espresso and a largely 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 [[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.
     It would be a coup to overcome geography and keep the cafe open in winter.
     Without affecting global warming.
-    Patio bonfires worth looking into.
+    Patio bonfires are worth looking into.
-    In winter it could be a kiosk, menu devised for creating heat or utilising refrigeration.
   * 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 (administration and coordination) does Fri-Sat; Sunday there is a paid invigilator.
-    * roles for cafe: preparation, service, cash-taking, cleaning up, stock management.
+Hazards: At what scale would the cafe interfere with the basic running of 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 / accessory to natural office life and disinvest food service of any lowered status. Instead advance tea and coffee service as a communications medium or active interpretation of aristotlean ideas of [[householding]], which can be defined as production for use as opposed to production 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
-    Decking. Sound the landlord out on this between rent payments.
-    Landlord relations are distantly friendly. There is a janitor who keeps a close eye
-    on the compound.
-    If landlord rejects decking plans, the parking spaces in front are legally HTTP's
+Initial investment would be an advantage (equipment, utensils, presentation media).
-    paid for with rent. Cafe could serve from here.
+Stock would cover itself.
+Decking that runs along the side of HTTP building would be prime seating area. Sound the landlord out on this between rent payments.
+Landlord relations are distantly friendly. There is a janitor who keeps a close eye
+on the compound. If landlord rejects decking plans, the parking spaces in front are
+formally HTTP's, paid for within rent. Cafe could serve from here with guests seating themselves informally.
+Is the back garden an alt possibility?
-    Liability would need to be thought through.
+    Liability would need to be thought through or ignored.
   * 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.
+  * operating 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.
+    High proportion of customers are from their extended social networks & probably live
+    within a few blocks. People go there for the sociability, decor, wifi,
+    good products, 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
+    Use existing [[uk_premises_regulations]] as a template/ jelly mould for evasion or
-    compliance. Produce an Exceptions reading menu as research result.
+    compliance. Produce a Regulatory reading menu as research project.
+===== HTTP structure  =====
+  * Current conditions
+Umbrella company is Catlow & Garrett (partnership). Tax entity, deals with rent and overheads, PAYE etc.
+HTTP is a [[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 98: / Line 132: @@
    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
+   Stock considerations include: regulatory perimeters, shelf life (perishability),
+   network relations, the facility of the food item to host information.
-   A biodiversity of criteria, none of which will be primary / exclusionary.
+   Selection will involve a biodiversity of criteria, none of which should be primary or exclusionary.
-   Seasonality, localness, information on source, information on carriage,
+   These include seasonality, locality, information on source, information on carriage,
-   trade relations with source, trade relations with courier.
+   trade relations with source, trade relations of delivery (embodied by courier).
-   Expand conception of local beyond village fortress model
+   Expand conception of localness beyond the territorial village model
+   to a shared set of connections plus swift transit routes
    like the scale-free hubs of the internet.
-   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 priority is to expanding the product monologue to articulate a
+   larger picture of the world it moves through.
+[[common_products]]
-   Read-write menu. Open to random vendors eg. customers can contribute
+   The commodity conceals its relations except for the money one;
-   (sell/trade/gift) stock.
+   the product of the commons is filled with human relations, although including
+   possibly unpleasant ones: Peter Linebaugh.)
-   Economy of scale. Enables hosting small batches/single items. Ultra seasonality.
+   Open up food-labelling as a platform for discussion and adaptation, as VS righteous
-   Menu should be easily adaptable and transmissable
+   boasting and promotion of purity fetish.
-   perhaps database-driven.
+   Undercut profit-motivated product aryanism of fresh 'n' wild.
+   Read-write menu. Open to intervention from random vendors eg. customers can contribute
+   via sell/trade/gifting stock.
-   Courier process. Use moving social networks including known / funded travel to HTTP
-   to deliver goods from afar, even shop-bought ones. Journey and relationship
-   documented, expands attention beyond gourmet-style fetishisation of origin.
+   Economy of miniaturisation. Enables hosting small batches/single items: ultra seasonality.
+   Menu should be easily adaptable and transmissable
+   perhaps database-driven
+   and list items currently in negotiation or pending.
-   Inter-organisational trade with peers, local and foreign.
+   Courier process. Use moving social networks including known and funded travel to HTTP
+   to deliver goods from afar, including store-bought ones. Journey and relationship
+   documented, expands attention to food provenance beyond gourmet-style fetishisation
+   of origin or source to the broader ecology of supply.
+   Promote inter-organisational trade with artistic peers, local and foreign.
+   Balkan and baltic states are a good place to start.
-   Commission or collect artists' food projects: eg. Food for Free apple mush on toast
+   Challenge fresh+wild to a duel.
+   Commission or collect artists' food projects
-   Source producers from HTTP social networks (cake, jams, herbs, sprouts)
+   Source producers or recipes from HTTP social networks (cake, jams, herbs, sprouts)
    incl city farm and allotment, home cultivation.
    Regulatory limits: Define and serve emergency food products; outer limits of biscuit.
+   Cream tea variations.
@@ Line 146: / Line 195: @@
   -    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 =====