Dough resists neatness and control, an aesthetic of the unmade, lumpen and formless. It is an unwieldy mass that provides a physical confrontation with intractable matter. This stuff is not fluid, it is a sticking point for the mind to flow around, and as such acts as a provocative anchor to the mess of the world. Dough is an obstinate medium – it can be anti-architectural and anti-design in its production of form.

We aim to exploit the alien qualities of bread dough to produce sculptural objects, and experiment with the structural and load-bearing capacities of bread dough. Dough as a medium is cheap, living, biodegradable, employs chance, is edible, non-toxic, expands and smells good. This residency will be an opportunity to work intensively with bread dough as a medium. Experimenting with the limits of dough, how it can be supported by metal (tins and trays) to build up sculptural forms, how the dough is produced (wild vs. commercial yeast) and what mixtures work best for making these kinds of structures.

Microresidency by Bridget Currie and Chloe Langford

• experiments with hydromel
• Bokashi composing
• wild fermentation > https://www.zotero.org/groups/foam_library/items/itemKey/XQQ34D9I/q/fermentation
• reading notes on dough and bread

Today was the first day of Chloe Langford and my microresidency at FoAM. A definite highlight was being given about 22 kg finest semolina duro flour by the fantabulous La Belle équipe pizza restaurant. We are still trying to source a large oven in the canal/st Catherine area of Brussels.

other thoughts from today:

• reinforcing dough through grass, straw, hair, fibre, like glass reinforced concrete.
• experiment with Mycellium and yeast crossculture within flour structure.
• The oven as truly precious space: Time, technology, cleanliness, loss of revenue - are all potential reasons why a business might say NO to us using their oven. I imagine back to the time of the communities baker being the only one with the oven - the power rests with them! Fire!
• drying bread dough - how will it effect structural stability?

• Made some dough from my starter and kneaded it with fibrous plant inclusions, baked some shapes. The bread is stable though not pneumatic, will have to see how it holds up when cold tomorrow.
• Constructed aluminium forms for dough to drape across.
• made a beer starter with Trappist beer.

From Chloe Langford, a quote:

My ancestors took what they had, which was nothing, and left their routines as slaves in Egypt to follow Moses into the desert in search of the promised land. For forty years they wandered through sand. At nights they rested where they could, against the dunes that had been built up by the winds. Waking the next morning, they took the flour from their sacks and moistened it with their spit and beat together a smooth dough, then set off, stooped, across the sand, the dough spread across their backs. It mingled with the salt of their sweat and hardened in the sun, and this is what they had for lunch. Some people spread the dough flat, and that dough became matzo. Others rolled tubes and fastened the ends, and those people ate bagels 'How a person should be', Sheila Heti

Day 3 friday night dough http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnOxfT6E_Bk&feature=youtu.be