Kbaumlier

Author: Kbaumlier

Kristen Baumlier’s work spans the full spectrum of interdisciplinary media, including performance, interactive installation, video and audio works.

Food Font – at the West Side Market Festival and Parade this Sunday

Posted on October 5, 2012October 5, 2012 by Kbaumlier

100 years! This Sunday October 7th from 1-6 pm Food Font will be at the West Side Market Festial and Parade which celebrates the 100 anniversary of the West Side Market in Cleveland, OH.

This is a free event and there are lots of great activities going on which include a parade with floats, live music, and fall and food themed activities. The parade will feature costumes and floats created by block clubs and community groups that are inspired by the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Parade the Circle event.

Some of the activities include food demos and tastings, an ice cream eating contest (for the first 20 people who sign up first – so get there early), and making scarecrows.

Food Font will be sharing a table with our friends from Edible Cleveland magazine and we will be making letter out of local food. I am not sure what food we are using yet – but I know it is not ice cream or hot dogs. Come stop by and help make the West Side Market Centennial Alphabet!

A full schedule and information for the event is on the West Side Market Centennial event website.

Links:

www.wsm100.org/index.php/street-festival-and-parade/

www.ediblecommunities.com/cleveland/

Flavour SenseNation: a Taste, Sight, and Smell Experience

Posted on October 2, 2012October 2, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Ever eat ice cream while holding marshmallows in your hands? Done a smell comparison test and tried to identify aromas? Flavour SenseNation is a traveling interactive event that explores the ways we use each of our senses through a variety of interactive activities.

Sight, sound, and perception all influence how food tastes. From hearing the crunch of an apple, to being able to identify when something tastes sour (suggesting what you’re eating might be ‘off’), our senses play a vital role in protecting us from harm. At the Flavour SenseNation event, traditional dishes are reinvented to make them look entirely different from their origins, so visitors can test if the food is still appealing.

Some of the activities include:

– Mapping your tongue and identifying which of your taste buds are most sensitive to the five basic tastes.
– Discovering how and why food textures can influence the enjoyment of food,
– Exploring how different sounds can enhance the appreciation of flavor.
– Testing your ability to identify aromas
– Investigating how preconceptions can impair our sensory skills.

At a recent event at the Abergavenny food festival in Wales, visitors could taste parmesan with spiced plum chutney, beetroot with walnut /orange sprinkles and dehydrated fennel shard ice creams. There also were hot and cold sweets, rose pepper chocolate, and other sweets to test.

The producer of the exhibition is ActionDog CIC – a not-for-profit production company that devises and delivers creative projects to inspire and educate young people. The project is funded by the Wellcome Trust, and was created by the Sensory Scientist Dr. Lisa Methven, Professor Peter Barham, Lulie Biggs and Kianna Bahrami of ActionDog. Pictures and information about the project can be seen on the Flavour SenseNation facebook page.

Images:
FlavourSenseNation – Facebook site

Links:

FlavourSenseNation – Facebook site

http://www.actiondog.net/

http://molecularcuisine.sva.edu/

Sunflowers, Beets, and Sprouts – The Root Café Sunflower Alphabet is in the Works

Posted on October 2, 2012October 2, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Last Saturday night, Food Font was at the “Sunflower Affair” dinner at the Root Café in Lakewood, OH. This event was a 5 course raw/whole food dinner, and people were given a letter to make during the event.

About half of the guests made letters, and the alphabets are really beautiful and show off the unique and tasty food. Many of the letters had sunflower or pumpkin seeds, beets, and other yummy foods.

All of the food was 98% Locally sourced and the event was done in partnership with the farmers that the Root Café works with including Cleveland Crops, Bay Branch Farm, old Husher farm, Central Roots Farm, and Rittman Fruit Farm. The event celebrated the harvest of raw and whole foods and recognized this time of the year when summer is ending and fall is starting.

The food was amazing, and there were lots of interesting people at the event. The alphabet is a reflection of the event – inspiring and creative.

The pictures from the event are posted on the Food Font Flickr site., and also can be viewed in the slideshows below.

Food Font at the “Sunflower Affair” Event at the Root Cafe on Saturday September 29, 2012

Root Cafe Sunflower Affair Alphabet

Links:

http://www.theroot-cafe.com/event/sunflower-affair

Lisa Ma: Speculative Design and “Farmification”

Posted on October 1, 2012October 2, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Lately everyone has been sending me interesting links about food and art. This week a colleague of mine sent a link to an upcoming conference entitled “Molecular Cuisine: The Politics of Taste” which will be held on October 19-21 in New York. The conference focuses on the topic of taste from various perspectives including the culinary arts, sociology, art history, and science. I checked out the conference website, and was interested by the work of one of the presenters, Lisa Ma.

Lisa Ma is a speculative designer who does research that she describes as “ creating platforms of engagement between the mainstream and the fringe.” One of the research techniques that she has used includes something called “extreme use,” which is when you give someone a tool who would not usually use a tool, observe them, and use this information to create alternative solutions to situations. Some of her recent research has included looking at structures, relationships, and how to create more sustainable communities.

Ma recently was involved in a project where she spent time in a Chinese factory outside the city of Shenzhen that built videogame controllers. As part of her research, she worked, ate, made friends, and watched soap operas with the factory workers.

One concern of this factory and many others in China, is that the factory was making only one type of product, the video controller, which already are diminishing in sales, and will eventually not be used. Ma wondered what would happen to this community when the factory closes in the future, and if another revenue source could be generated.

Many of the factory workers came from a farming background, so she proposed to the factory owners that they provide opportunities for the workers to do parttime farming to generate another stream of revenue. She called this experiment “Farmification,” and that this effort could have a positive effect on the community now and in the future.

Videos, pictures, and information about the project can be seen on Ma’s website.

Image Source:
Lisa Ma – Website
Links:

Video – Lisa Ma Talking about “Farmification”

“Farmification – Video

Lisa Ma – Website

The Cookie Cup – A Coffee Cup You Can Eat

Posted on September 30, 2012October 2, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Ever want to drink from a cup and eat it too? Recently, a Venezuelan designer named Enrique Luis Sardi created a unique cup for Lavazza, the Italian coffee company. The cup is made of a cookie for the outside, and has a special patented sugar icing on the inside that creates an insulator for the cookie and add sweetness to the coffee.

Who wouldn’t want to drink from a cookie, and then eat it too? On his website, Sardi reports that he has won many awards for the cup in the area of ecology and design.

Image Source:
Cookie Cup – www.sardi-innovation.com

Links:

Cookie Cup – www.sardi-innovation.com