User:Alice/Project proposal

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What do you want to make

The act of cooking, following the instructions of a recipe, handling food and the meaning behind everyday gestures and habits related to food production and consumption, these are all details that interest me. Cooking is often used as an analogy, in order to explain other technical processes and concepts, such as programming. This is done under the assumption that everyone is accustomed to the act of cooking, and can therefore understand another more complicated concept through it. The recipe has often been compared to the computer program, and terms such as recipe and cookbook have been appropriated and used in the programming world to define pieces of code that perform a certain task, and collections of these pieces of code. I see this as a sort of gimmick to ease people's understanding of complex issues, while diminishing the importance and complexity of the medium used for the explanation.

For me, it's important that food is used as a medium to discuss a broader social context, so this will be more of a research into specific community practices, transfer of knowledge and biases, the political act of food production, etc. This is why I would like my project to be manifested through a series of events and experiments in which the participants would deconstruct the practice of cooking and analyze various procedures taken for granted, take apart the structure of a recipe and reconstruct it based on formats more in line with the physical practice. Another aspect I want to test is the concept of collaborative cooking as performative act (e.g: Frankfurter kitchen plan) and ways of reconnecting with the food we eat on a daily basis.

How do you plan to make it

A goal would be to design/plan/conceptualize events related to food production, reflecting on the issues mentioned above. I am planning to follow and participate in food events that take place in and around hackerspaces, where hackers and programmers redirect their skillset towards food production and experimentation (but not only). I plan to write essays on specific issues in preparation for the thesis chapters; for example, I am currently reflecting on the concept of recipes, instruction sets, how they reflect the reality of the tasks being described, how different types of recipes can relate to one another, how they disconnect (or not) the instruction from the physical act, etc.

What is your timetable

I plan to stick to the deadlines :)

I also plan to participate in a number of events which, hopefully, will give me more insights. So far I have three lined up, in October, November and December. Nonetheless, I plan to start prototyping and testing with such events, starting as early as the [session which I have coming up on the 12th of November] and continuing throughout the year.

Why do you want to make it

Reading on food culture, food history and other food related topics has been one of my main interests for many years, so this project comes as a natural progression for me. Furthermore, my recent introduction to the world of software culture has opened new possibilities and insights. Now I want to explore the relationship between the two, how the principles connected to one can be transferred to another, what is lost and what is gained through the association of the two.

A further point to make here is that I have come to programming from completely different mediums. For me, it is not the end goal, but a tool I use to prove a point, or to practice a concept. At times, when working on a project within this course, I feel like the focus shifts too much towards the technical aspects, and away from the conceptual, subjective, embodied self. Coming from a deep, lifelong interest in food culture, I find it surprising to see it now used as an 'easy way in' to tech world. I am conflicted on my position towards this path, but I am extremely interested in the critical exploration, and the social and political implications of this connection. I also want to reflect more on how to bring the body back into the equation when it comes to conversations on food, through physical movement, memory, taste, etc.

Another aspect that I am looking for with this project is creating a community around food culture. This is something I have been looking for for years, and have never been able to find/achieve/integrate in. An inclusive community of people keen on playful and critical experimentation with food, and insightful conversation on this aspect of our lives that is often overlooked, is definitely my goal. One step towards this would be to create a platform which brings together all kinds of food-related events and the people organizing and participating in these conversations.

Who can help you and how

So far, Femke has been my biggest inspiration, since many of the topics I am reflecting on are part of the work she has already done in the past decade.

Another person that I will be talking to is Marketa Dolejsova, who is also extremely active in the food scene and has developed a number of amazing projects. I will be meeting her in Utrecht during her workshop at CCU, Designing Recipes for Sustainable Digital Food Futures.

Relation to previous practice

In the past couple of months I have researched quite a bit about women's relationship with technology. More specifically, I was interested in how women were first introduced to the technological world and were given tasks that seemed, at the time, menial and basic. These tasks eventually became the basis of programming today, a culture completely appropriated by men. Similarly, food production has always been associated with women's work, done behind closed doors, with little or no attention being given to it from the outside. In time, cooking has become appropriated by a different culture, hacking culture, stripped of its emotional layer and turned into a programmatic practice.

Looking back even further, I have always been an avid reader of all things food-related, especially food in social and political contexts. The disconnection between our daily food habits and the whole world that exists behind the scenes has also been one of my main paths of exploration. My previous work has also involved shifting the focus from other daily activities which might seem more important or relevant, to the food consumed, the decisions that lead to the food consumed and the background of these decisions and how they reflect the way people relate to the world around them.

Relation to a larger context

As stated earlier, the one connection that jumps out right now is the appropriation of culture that has emerged in technology after world war 2, and is still ongoing today. I am also interested in the idea of food preparation as an anticapitalist political act (as expressed by Michael Pollan) in which people can become more than simple consumers in an industry ruled by big corporations. Other ideas:

• kitchen tools, from tools of oppression (Semiotics of the kitchen) to status symbols (https://smartypans.io/)
• replacing human intelligence, skill and intuition with gadgets (smartypans again)
• deconstructing everyday habits that are taken for granted and shifting the focus towards them