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recipes_for_disaster [2009-02-06 18:24] 195.188.51.205recipes_for_disaster [2009-03-02 04:14] (current) 198.161.31.4
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 While not a propositional model for a viable large scale operation, the project maintains a functioning alternate freight system for groceries and other goods to travel internationally. Feral Trade supplies a drifting network of individuals (friends, colleagues, other artists, their family members and social contacts) and organisations (including former and prospective employers, sponsors, hosts and organisational peers). The challenge of supplying groceries to the art world in particular, has led to an interest in the Public Diet of cultural organisations: the proposition that it's the disassociation between content - beliefs, ideals, curated programmes of events - and infrastructure - context, economy, service utilities, the things you handle and systems you subscribe to - that has brought us to the current twin towers of economic & ecological collapse.  While not a propositional model for a viable large scale operation, the project maintains a functioning alternate freight system for groceries and other goods to travel internationally. Feral Trade supplies a drifting network of individuals (friends, colleagues, other artists, their family members and social contacts) and organisations (including former and prospective employers, sponsors, hosts and organisational peers). The challenge of supplying groceries to the art world in particular, has led to an interest in the Public Diet of cultural organisations: the proposition that it's the disassociation between content - beliefs, ideals, curated programmes of events - and infrastructure - context, economy, service utilities, the things you handle and systems you subscribe to - that has brought us to the current twin towers of economic & ecological collapse. 
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 +{{http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3313/3220595976_5978d9bc6e_m.jpg}}
  
 == Taste == == Taste ==
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 ==  Persistence == ==  Persistence ==
  
-One of the issues the research raises is the value of persistence in the art world. Feral Trade has made a series of attempts to enter the food chain of other institutions as a vendor, with variable results. This supplier-style relationship, with its repeat cycle of orders, delivery and invoicing, breaks with the art world's natural currency of novelty. While event-based spectacles such as the one-off exhibition and service of Feral Trade coffee have been easy to negotiate, attempts at sustained engagement with the infrastructure have met with relative inertia (see http://www.feraltrade.org/cgi-bin/shipments/2shipping.pl?action=list_shipments&viewall=1&new_sort=sendloc&criterion=V%26A for a rare instance of success). +One of the issues the research raises is the value of persistence in the art world. Feral Trade has made repeated attempts to enter the food chain of other institutions as a vendor, with variable results. This supplier-style relationship, with its repeat cycle of orders, delivery and invoicing, breaks with the art world's natural currency of novelty. While event-based spectacles such as the one-off exhibition and service of Feral Trade coffee have been easy to negotiate, attempts at sustained engagement with the infrastructure have met with relative inertia (see http://www.feraltrade.org/cgi-bin/shipments/2shipping.pl?action=list_shipments&viewall=1&new_sort=sendloc&criterion=V%26A for a rare instance of success). 
  
 ==  THE RESEARCH == ==  THE RESEARCH ==
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 In 2005, Berlin artist Natascha Sadr-Haghighian and I imported 25 electric ricecookers to UK and Germany from their factory source in Iran, and distributed them to a network of subscribers. Social and family connections helped negotiate the direct export from the Pars Khazar ricecooker factory. The import was designed to enlarge the options for basic cooked foods where self-catering is otherwise unavailable. In 2005, Berlin artist Natascha Sadr-Haghighian and I imported 25 electric ricecookers to UK and Germany from their factory source in Iran, and distributed them to a network of subscribers. Social and family connections helped negotiate the direct export from the Pars Khazar ricecooker factory. The import was designed to enlarge the options for basic cooked foods where self-catering is otherwise unavailable.
  
-{{http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3372/3220614694_c00ccb09e2_m.jpg}}+{{http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3372/3220614694_c00ccb09e2_m.jpg}} {{http://www.feraltrade.org/ricecooker/export/thumbs/sofia_bulgaria_01832_thumb.jpg}}
  
 Ricecookers can provide basic portable nutrition in a range of territories. For hospitality and sustenance you just add water, rice and electricity. A ricecooker works fine on the train - for example a sleeper compartment across Bulgaria - also at laptop and vacuum-cleaner sockets at other semi-public spaces such as airport lounges. To cook espresso just remove the inner pot and place espresso pot directly in the heating element. Ricecookers can provide basic portable nutrition in a range of territories. For hospitality and sustenance you just add water, rice and electricity. A ricecooker works fine on the train - for example a sleeper compartment across Bulgaria - also at laptop and vacuum-cleaner sockets at other semi-public spaces such as airport lounges. To cook espresso just remove the inner pot and place espresso pot directly in the heating element.
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 The aesthetics of emergency and survival have more normally been monopolised by other interests: the military, outdoor adventure catalogues, NASA, or memories of WWII (hoarding flour, eggs, lard etc). The above techniques for alternate emergency provisioning have been rehearsed from position of luxury (IE. choice), although as training they could be prescient. The collapse of the Bristol flagship store of Fresh and Wild in September 2008 - a luxury foods supermarket in Bristol owned by the US giant Wholefoods, whose core values include creating wealth through profits & growth - signals a singular tremor in the fine food market.  The aesthetics of emergency and survival have more normally been monopolised by other interests: the military, outdoor adventure catalogues, NASA, or memories of WWII (hoarding flour, eggs, lard etc). The above techniques for alternate emergency provisioning have been rehearsed from position of luxury (IE. choice), although as training they could be prescient. The collapse of the Bristol flagship store of Fresh and Wild in September 2008 - a luxury foods supermarket in Bristol owned by the US giant Wholefoods, whose core values include creating wealth through profits & growth - signals a singular tremor in the fine food market. 
  
-{{http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3341/3220707076_f7564ff462_m.jpg}} {{http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3511/3220712516_4b5d0f1965_m.jpg}}+{{http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3449/3219857537_f11943d6fa_m.jpg}} {{http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3511/3220712516_4b5d0f1965_m.jpg}} {{http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3510/3220717662_3673b51345_m.jpg}} 
  
 In Fresh and Wild's absence, more inspiring suppliers in Bristol include the Womens Institute - a UK rebel network of highly organised cake and scone makers. And November 2008's Cube-Cola Producers' Party at the Cube brought its own network of local low-quantity provisioners (nettle beer, damson vodka, wild jams) out of the woodwork. Although it is interesting to note though that many of these home-manufactured, foraged, baked, brewed and crafted food suppliers - including Cube-Cola - cluster around the common mass-market commodity of refined sugar. In Fresh and Wild's absence, more inspiring suppliers in Bristol include the Womens Institute - a UK rebel network of highly organised cake and scone makers. And November 2008's Cube-Cola Producers' Party at the Cube brought its own network of local low-quantity provisioners (nettle beer, damson vodka, wild jams) out of the woodwork. Although it is interesting to note though that many of these home-manufactured, foraged, baked, brewed and crafted food suppliers - including Cube-Cola - cluster around the common mass-market commodity of refined sugar.
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