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--- public_diet [2008-07-12 11:26] – katerich
+++ public_diet [2008-07-15 13:54] – katerich
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-**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. **
+**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. **
-Feral Trade [[http://feraltrade.org]]
-HTTP [[http://www.http.uk.net]]
+Feral Trade http://feraltrade.org
+HTTP http://www.http.uk.net
 ===== CAFE motives, structure and infrastructure =====
@@ Line 10: / Line 11: @@
 Practical
-. 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.
+. HTTP is located in the back of beyond (an industrial estate in the residential London area 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.
-A cafe would give exhibition goers something more to chew on such as
-sustenance and conviviality; enriched space for contemplation, information and reading.
-Elongate visit.
-. A 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 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.
+    http: The cafe will demonstrate an alternate economy and ecology that promotes free
-    Promote free processes and experiences other than those governed by hegemonic global
+    processes and experiences other than those governed by hegemonic global capitalism -
-    capitalism. Feral Trade is an economy based on other peoples' activities and how you
+    so many shops deal with just money. Feral Trade is an economy based on other peoples'
-    get from A to B. Even at this small scale it has a polemic value.
+    activities and how you get from A to B.
+    Even at this small scale it has a polemic value.
-Financial
 [[feral_trade_economy]]
-Profit is not a motive, which opens up the terms of engagement considerably.
-  * income scenario
+Economic
-All transactions logged and accounted for.
+Profit is not a necessary motive - which opens up the operating territory considerably.
-The cafe would be designed as financially self sufficient, although seed funding agreed as probable.
+Although stock should still pay for itself plus provide a heady 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, in business terms.
+   feral trade:Feral Trade runs at a fabulous loss, in business terms.
-   It operates in an absence of the principle of least effort,
+   It operates in an absence of the principle of least effort which excludes it from
-   excluding it from basic capitalist forms of success.
+   basic market measures of success. The investment is in the network.
-   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.
-Current average 15-20 visitors per weekend, mainly arriving 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, 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).
+Portuguese cafe in the other direction has good cheap 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 [[http://www.http.uk.net/docs/exhib6/summer_of_folk.shtml]] 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 London geography and keep the cafe open in
+    winter. Without affecting global warming.
-    It would be a coup to overcome geography and keep the cafe open in winter.
+Patio bonfires worth looking into.
-    Without affecting global warming.
-    Patio bonfires are worth looking into.
   * caretaking: human resources as they currently stand
@@ Line 64: / Line 55: @@
 When the gallery is open, there is someone always available to respond to visitors.
 Saturday and Sunday have dedicated invigilation, Fridays can be more hectic.
-Currently Ale (administration and coordination) does Fri-Sat; Sunday there is a paid invigilator.
+Currently Ale (Furtherfield administration and coordination) does Fri-Sat; Sundays they hire an invigilator.
-Hazards: At what scale would the cafe interfere with the basic running of other office activity?
+Hazards: At what scale would the cafe interfere with other office activity?
     * roles for cafe.
-Service: preparation, waiting, cash-taking.
+**Service:** preparation, waiting, cash-taking.
-Cafe service role would be rotated amongst present core personnel.
+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.
+this kind of distributed culture is integral to the way Furtherfield works as a group.
-[[http://www.furtherfield.org/about.php]]
+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.
+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.
+**Management:** Feral Trade would remain involved in the politics and practicalities of supply. Day to day stock management would be 1 person's responsibility,
-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 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
 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). Decking receives no afternoon sun, another reason  to look at occupying parking.
-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, as well as being promoted as background for exhibitions.
-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
+    Many of their customers are from their extended social networks, probably from
-    within a few blocks. People go for the sociability, decor, free wireless,
+    within a few blocks radius. 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.
-    Leila's Shop, Shoreditch. Review covers the for & againsts pretty effectively:
+    Leila's Shop, Shoreditch. Expensive bespoke groceries / cafe, review covers the for &
-    http://londonreviewofbreakfasts.blogspot.com/2008/04/leilas-shop-shoreditch.html
+    againsts: http://londonreviewofbreakfasts.blogspot.com/2008/04/leilas-shop-shoreditch.html
-=====  REGULATION =====
+===== HTTP structure  =====
-    Use existing premises regulations as a template/ jelly mould for evasion or
+Umbrella company is Catlow & Garrett, a partnership and tax entity, deals with rent and overheads, PAYE etc.
-    compliance. Produce a Regulatory reading menu as research project.
+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.
-===== HTTP structure  =====
+=====  REGULATORY STRUCTURE =====
-  * Current conditions
+[[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
-Umbrella company is Catlow & Garrett (unincorporated partnership). Tax entity, deals with rent and overheads, PAYE.
-HTTP & Furtherfield are not for profits with written constitutions.
-Furtherfield has an advisory board and is funded by ACE.
-HTTP is a furtherfield.org project.
-HTTP compound is zoned as mixed / live-work.
 =====  MENU =====
@@ Line 133: / Line 120: @@
    Promote Feral Trade experimental trader aims.
-   Food goods will be informationalised (onboard or on menu)
+Food goods will be informationalised (onboard or on menu).
-   Stock considerations include: regulatory perimeters, shelf life (perishability),
+Customer receipts can be A4 laser prints with a torrent of product information, alongside the date and price of purchase.
-   network relations, the facility of the food item to host information.
-   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,
-   trade relations with source, trade relations of delivery (embodied by courier).
-   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.
+Stock selection will involve a biodiversity of criteria, none of which should be primary or exclusionary. Considerations include:
-   Ingredients and products with questionable ethics can be included, along with their
+   - compliance with or skirting the regulatory perimeters [[uk_premises_regulations]]
-   source information. The priority is to expanding the product monologue to articulate a
+   - shelf life: to avoid sales incentive or waste
-   larger picture of the world it moves through.
+   - the facility of the food item to [[common_products|host information]], including
+   - information on source, relations with land, embodied by the transport of its produce
+   - information on carriage, network and delivery relations embodied by courier/s.
+   - seasonality, including transportation seasons
+   - localness
-[[common_products]]
+   Expand the notion of localness beyond the territorial boundaries of the village
+   or nation state, to more closely replicate the world HTTP works in: a shared set
+   of connections and navigable routes like the scale-free hubs of the internet.
-   The commodity conceals its relations except for the money one;
+   * Fairness
-   the product of the commons is filled with human relations, although including
-   possibly unpleasant ones: Peter Linebaugh.)
+Ingredients and products with questionable ethics can be included, along with their
+source information. The main thing is to expand the product monologue beyond simple boasting and the promotion of purity fetishes (such as the truth claims, elevated origins and destinies - gourmet, organic, fairdom, health - promoted by fresh and wild style packaging http://feraltrade.org/research/righteous_products) to instead articulate a
+larger picture of the world the product moves through.
+[[tea_from_bangladesh]] for example.
-   Open up food-labelling as a platform for discussion and adaptation, as VS righteous
+Fair Trade, in comparison, focuses its product communiques on the icon of the farmer/producer - [[http://feraltrade.org/fair|a homogenous landscape]]
-   boasting and promotion of purity fetish.
+and one that reverses earlier breaks with tradition in visualising agriculture
-   Undercut profit-motivated product aryanism of fresh 'n' wild.
+labour as a statement on rural poverty as opposed to example of pastoral virtue.
+See Gleaning, François Millet 1857 http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~waste/timeline/story-pic1.htm
-   Read-write menu. Open to intervention from random vendors eg. customers can contribute
+  * Other Information
-   via sell/trade/gifting stock.
+[[breakdown_of_expenses]]: The cafe menu to also include items and incidents in the transit of cash preformed for 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.
-   Economy of miniaturisation. Enables hosting small batches/single items: ultra seasonality.
+   * Reciprocity
-   Menu should be easily adaptable and transmissable
-   perhaps database-driven
-   and list items currently in negotiation or pending.
+Read-write menu. Open to intervention from random vendors eg. customers can contribute
+menu items via peddling stock (sale, trade or gift).
-   Courier process. Use moving social networks including known and funded travel to HTTP
+   * Seasonality
-   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.
-   Challenge fresh+wild to a duel.
+Economy of miniaturisation / smallscale. Enables hosting small batches/single items, ultra short seasons and microclimates. Menu format should be easily updated and transmitted (database-driven) and include out of stock items - wishlisted, in negotiation or pending delivery.
-   Commission or collect artists' food projects
+    * Suppliers
-   Source producers or recipes from HTTP social networks (cake, jams, herbs, sprouts)
+Source producers or recipes from HTTP social networks, commission or collect artists' food projects, social connections to city farms or allotments, home cultivation
-   incl city farm and allotment, home cultivation.
+(cake, jams, herbs, sprouts etc).
-   Regulatory limits: Define and serve emergency food products; outer limits of biscuit.
+   * Delivery
-   Cream tea variations.
+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.
-   Feral Trade staples start menu.
+   * Regulations
-  -    Coffee from El Salvador
-  -    Tea from Bangladesh (TBC)
+Regulatory limits: Define and stock emergency food products; define emergency; outer limits of biscuit; cream teas.
-  -    Cola from Bristol.
-  -    Salt from Gujarat
-  Other organisational contenders
+    * Basics
-  -    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 =====
+    Feral Trade staples start menu.
+    - Coffee from El Salvador
+    - Tea from Bangladesh (TBC)
+    - Cola from Bristol.
+    - Salt from Gujarat
+    - Zaytoun olive oil and other products
+      http://zaytoun.org / local distributors at
+      http://www.zaytoun.org/index.php/sellers/#London
-   proposed start time mid-september ( for jeremey bailey show)
+     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
-   local: table menu of contents / protocols / products; launch/event
+   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
@@ Line 212: / Line 205: @@
+===== 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.