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--- public_diet [2008-07-12 06:25] – katerich
+++ public_diet [2008-07-14 07:16] – katerich
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-**feasability study for sustained sustenance: installing a Feral Trade Cafe at http galleryx, london uk autumn/winter 2008**
+**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. **
+Feral Trade http://feraltrade.org
+HTTP http://www.http.uk.net
 ===== CAFE motives, structure and infrastructure =====
@@ Line 5: / Line 9: @@
   * Motives for opening a cafe as an art project.
-HTTP  [[http://www.http.uk.net]] is located in the back of beyond from the point of
+Practical
-view of its visitors.
-It would like to give exhibition goers something more to chew on, such as
+. 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.
-sustenance and conviviality, space for contemplation, information and reading.
 Elongate visit.
-Useful service for local residents and studio occupants. The neighbourhood is
+. 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.
-changing, it's a way of connecting with the local community that's more fluid and
-open, a softer and more everyday interface than the gallery.
+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]]
+Economic
-    Demonstrate an alternate economy and ecology: so many shops deal with just money.
+Profit is not a necessary motive, which opens up the operating territory considerably.
-    Promote free processes and experiences other than those governed by hegemonic global
-    capitalism. 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.
-  * income scenarios
+  * income scenario
+Slow start.
 All transactions logged and accounted for.
-The cafe would be designed as financially self sufficient, although application for seed funding agreed as ok.
+The cafe would be designed as financially self sufficient, although seed funding needed for start-up equipment and utensils.
    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.
-  * 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
-detour to Costa Coffee. Portuguese cafe in the other direction.
+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 and Feral
+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.
-    It would be a coup to overcome geography and keep the cafe open in winter.
     Without affecting global warming.
-    Patio bonfires are worth looking into.
+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.
-Sat and sun have more dedicated invigilation, 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, advance tea and coffee service as a communications medium.
-Weekly 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 would be an advantage.
+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
 on the compound. If landlord rejects decking plans, the parking spaces in front are
-legally HTTP's, paid for within rent. Cafe could serve from here.
+formally HTTP's, included in their rent. Cafe could serve from here with guests seating themselves informally (on the decking).
-Is the back garden an alt possibility?
-    Liability would need to be thought through either way.
+    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.
-  * operating models (positive and negative)
+  * other models (positive and negative)
-    Cafe Kino in Bristol. Vegetarian cafe, opens weekdays 11-5, longer on weekends.
+    Cafe Kino http://www.cafe-kino.com/about/index.htm, Bristol.
-    Run by a collective of artists etc who also run the Here Shop and Gallery over the road.
+    Run by a collective of artists etc who also run the Here Shop & Gallery over the road.
-    High proportion of customers are their extended social networks who probably live
+    Mnay of their customers are from their extended social networks & probably live
-    within a few blocks. People go for the sociability, decor, free wireless,
+    within a few blocks. People go there for the sociability, decor, wifi,
-    good tea and coffee, cultural contagion plus pleasure of investing in own social
+    good tea/coffee, cultural contagion plus pleasure of investing in own social
     networks.
@@ Line 93: / Line 108: @@
 =====  REGULATION =====
-    Use existing premises regulations as a template/ jelly mould for evasion or
+[[uk_premises_regulations]]
-    compliance. Produce a Regulatory reading menu as research project.
+    Use existing regulations as a template/ jelly mould for evasion or compliance.
+    Produce a Regulatory reading menu as research project.
 ===== HTTP structure  =====
-  * Current conditions
+Umbrella company is Catlow & Garrett, a partnership and tax entity, deals with rent and overheads, PAYE etc.
+HTTP is a http://furtherfield.org project.
-Umbrella company is Catlow & Garrett (unincorporated partnership). Tax entity, deals with rent and overheads, PAYE.
+HTTP & Furtherfield are not for profits, with written constitutions.
-HTTP & Furtherfield are not for profits with written constitutions.
+Furtherfield has an advisory board and is funded by Arts Council England.
-Furtherfield has an advisory board and is funded by ACE.
+HTTP is located in a business arena zoned as mixed / live-work.
-HTTP is a furtherfield.org project.
-HTTP compound is zoned as mixed / live-work.
@@ Line 116: / Line 130: @@
    Food goods will be informationalised (onboard or on menu)
-   Stock considerations include: regulatory perimeters, shelf life (perishability),
+   Selection will involve a biodiversity of criteria, none of which should be
-   network relations, the facility of the food item to host information.
+   primary or exclusionary. Stock considerations include:
-   Selection will involve a biodiversity of criteria, none of which should be primary or exclusionary.
-   These include seasonality, locality, information on source, information on carriage,
+   - compliance with or skirting the regulatory perimeters [[uk_premises_regulations]]
-   trade relations with source, trade relations of delivery (embodied by courier).
+   - shelf life: to avoid sales incentive or waste
+   - the facility of the food item to host information, including
+   - information on source: relations with land embodied by the transport of its produce
-   Expand conception of localness beyond the territorial village model
+   - information on carriage: network relations, trade relations in delivery, embodied by courier/s.
-   to a shared set of connections plus swift transit routes
+   - 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]]
    Ingredients and products with questionable ethics can be included, along with their
-   source information. The priority is to expanding the product monologue to articulate a
+   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 surprisingly homogenous landscape
+http://feraltrade.org/fair
-[[common_products]]
+reversing earlier radical trajectory of visualising agriculture labour - in the case of gleaning - as a statement on rural poverty as opposed to example of pastoral virtue: François Millet 1857
-   The commodity conceals its relations except for the money one;
+http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~waste/timeline/story-pic1.htm
-   the product of the commons is filled with human relations, although including
-   possibly unpleasant ones: Peter Linebaugh.)
+[[breakdown_of_expenses]]: menu to also include itemisations in the transit of cash involved in the goods' procurement, particularly its obstacles, as the materiality of money in small quantities generally defies the idea of the smooth movement of finance across global networks.
-   Open up food-labelling as a platform for discussion and adaptation, as VS righteous
+   Feral Trade opens up food-labelling as a platform for discussion and adaptation, as VS
-   boasting and promotion of purity fetish.
+   righteous boasting and promotion of purity fetishes.
-   Undercut profit-motivated product aryanism of fresh 'n' wild.
+   Undercut profit-motivated product constructions of elevated origins and destinies,
+   the type of truth claim propagated by fresh 'n' wild.
    Read-write menu. Open to intervention from random vendors eg. customers can contribute
-   via sell/trade/gifting stock.
+   menu items via sell/trade/gifting stock.
-   Economy of miniaturisation. Enables hosting small batches/single items: ultra seasonality.
+   Economy of miniaturisation / small-scale. Enables hosting small batches/single items
-   Menu should be easily adaptable and transmissable
+   ultra short seasons.
-   perhaps database-driven
+   Menu should be easily adaptable and transmissable, perhaps database-driven,
-   and list items currently in negotiation or pending.
+   and include a section for items not in stock eg. 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. Journey and relationship
+   to deliver goods from afar, including store-bought ones. Documenting these journeys and
-   documented, expands attention to food provenance beyond gourmet-style fetishisation
+   relationships expands attention on food provenance beyond a gourmet-style fetishisation
-   of origin or source to the broader ecology of supply.
+   of origin or source, to a broader ecology of supply.
    Promote inter-organisational trade with artistic peers, local and foreign.
-   Balkan and baltic states are a good place to start.
    Challenge fresh+wild to a duel.
-   Commission or collect artists' food projects
+   Source producers or recipes from HTTP social networks
+   including city farm and allotment, home cultivation (cake, jams, herbs, sprouts) .
-   Source producers or recipes from HTTP social networks (cake, jams, herbs, sprouts)
+   Commission or collect artists' food projects.
-   incl city farm and allotment, home cultivation.
    Regulatory limits: Define and serve emergency food products; outer limits of biscuit.
    Cream tea variations.
    Feral Trade staples start menu.
@@ Line 175: / 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  food for free apple mush
+  -    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