Cooking Earth workshop

The food research platform Black Almanac operates on the assumption that humans have barely begun to exploit the full spectrum of possibilities for energy and matter that might be understood as “food.” Far from it. In fact, we argue that it is the repetition of a limited repertoire of cultural, culinary, technological and agricultural techniques that is the primary cause of widespread ecological damage suffered in the name of feeding. 

In 12,000 years of agricultural time, human beings have cooked both dishes and the landscapes that produce them. We cook the Earth in order to feed ourselves and now the Earth is cooking us. And yet the route towards a viable, equitable, sustainable food system will still require “cooking” – not only of new and currently alien foods, but of the infrastructures, knowledge, and institutions that will drive this transformation.

Over three workshops at Medialab Matadero between 17-21 October, plus a field trip, performance, and public discussion, we will invite participants and guest speakers to reassess the past, present, and future of food. From precision agriculture to synthetic fats, perverse government subsidies to soil ecology, flavour science and liberation from or by food – the topic is endlessly complex and often controversial, clouded by subjective intuition and pastoral nostalgia. 

To this end we will be joined by chefs, designers, artists, engineers, philosophers, physicists and chemists to question everyday anxieties about what we eat and where it comes from. We will expose hidden blockages holding back change, and imagine food futures that do not presently exist, recognising that while kitchens are domestic laboratories, so too is the food system at large, a metabolic realm where culture steers chemistry, and vice versa.

Who is it targeted to:

We welcome applications from anyone who eats – but those with a defined role or research interest related to food are especially welcome. We would also like to know what skills you might bring to the workshop – be that as a designer, writer, artist, scientist, chef, programmer or entrepreneur – as participants will work towards a final outcome that incorporates the group’s findings to make them accessible to others.

Schedule:

• 17.10 DAY 1: (PAST). 16:00-20:00. A four-hour workshop featuring an introduction and ice breaker with Black Almanac, as well as two guest lectures via Zoom – with food historian Rachel Laudan examining “food guilt” and geographer Nikos Katsikis on mapping “operational landscapes.”
• 18.10 FIELDTRIP. 16:00-20:00. In this walk with José Luis Casadevante and Nerea Morán we will go through the past (vestiges, memory...), the present (spaces in dispute) and the future (initiatives that point towards alternative food systems) of the invisible relationships between city and food in the city of Madrid. We will explore how food has conditioned the shape of cities, organizing spaces and the functioning of urban dynamics, the nomenclature of public space and even the way they are inhabited.
• 19.10 DAY 2: (PRESENT). 16:00-20:00. A second four-hour workshop with a second introduction by Black Almanac, a Zoom discussion with nonfood founders Sean Raspet (a chemist and artist) and Lucy Chinen (a food writer and historian). After a break we will sample prototypes prepared by astrophysicist and head chef Susanne Tobler and computer scientist Remo Gisi.
• 21.10 DAY 3: (FUTURE). 16:00-21:00. This final workshop will explore future food systems – with a talk by engineer Juan García Martínez on industrial food production and response to catastrophic events. This workshop will introduce the history of factory-kitchens and allow time for contributions from attendees. +Performance with Fondo Supper Club.

> See detailed program here

List of invited experts:

• Philip Maughan
• Andrea Provenzano
• Rachel Laudan
• Nikos Katsikis
• Fondo Supper Club
• Sean Raspet
• Lucy Chinen
• Susanne Tobler
• Remo Gisi
• Juan García Martínez
• José Luis Casadevante
• Nerea Morán

If you would like to take parte in the workshop, please fill in this form before October the 12th.

Free activity.