Author: Kbaumlier

Kristen Baumlier’s work spans the full spectrum of interdisciplinary media, including performance, interactive installation, video and audio works.
Food Phreaking – 38 Stories of Experimenting with Food

Food Phreaking – 38 Stories of Experimenting with Food

Posted on by Kbaumlier

The Center for Genomic Gastronomy is an independent research institute that examines the technology, ecology, diversity and open culture of human food systems.  Their mission is to map food controversies, prototype alternative culinary futures and to imagine a more just, biodiverse, and beautiful food system.

Recently they put out a new publication called Food Phreaking – issue #0, which outlines stories of  what Food Phreaking is and is not.  In the book, Artists Cat Kramer and Zack Denfield share stories about Colony Collapse Cuisine (eating non-bee- pollinated ingredients), raw milk vending machines, seed saving clubs, and beans tattooed with DNA-laced ink.

Food Phreakers are defined as individuals interested in experimenting with human food systems and promoting open, free and accessible knowledge about food.  The introduction to the book talks about how farmers, chefs, biohackers, food scientists, and people who have chickens in the yard, can pickles, or love to grow are doing Food Phreaking.

The book is organized into four sections:

LEGAL & OPEN  – Open Source Food Science & Participatory Food Design
ILLEGAL & OPEN  – Culinary Civil Disobedience & Outlaw Ingredients
ILLEGAL & CLOSED – Black Hat Food Hacking & Food Crime
LEGAL & CLOSED – Proprietary Food Engineering & Closed Source Food Design

I took a peek at the free .pdf of the book and found the stories and images to be some of the most engaging ideas about food that I have seen this year.  Some of the stories included direction on how to make Beet Petals (kind of like beet chips), informatoin about the  United Nations 2013  International Year of Quinoa, directions on how to limit your diet to non-bee-pollinated ingredients, and how to make open source mineral water.

As the authors write, “ Taste the future, today. And be prepared.”

This is one of the most interesting food books I have seen for a while, and you can download for free as a PDF of FoodPhreaking #0. (15 mb) or order online.

Image Sources and Links:

http://genomicgastronomy.com/

http://www.foodphreaking.com/issue0pdf/Food_Phreaking.pdf

 

 

CAMERAS – An Installation of 150 Fake Security Cameras

CAMERAS – An Installation of 150 Fake Security Cameras

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Ever feel like someone is watching you?  In the Great Britain, there is one surveillance for every six people in the country. To explore issues of surveillance, the Spanish artist SpY recently installed 150 CCTV cameras on a building façade in Madrid  The fake security cameras were put up to “not watch over anything,” as the artist writes on his website.

SpY has been doing projects in urban spaces for over twenty years starting with graffiti and public intervention art.   His ideas stems from the observation of the city and how to use irony and humor to get others to think.

You can see more images of the making and installation of the piece, and see others of SpY’s work on his website.

Image Source and Links:

Cameras – www.spy-urbanart.com

 

Pro-Folio – Create A Fake Artist’s Portfolio In Two Seconds

Pro-Folio – Create A Fake Artist’s Portfolio In Two Seconds

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Are you are an artist who does work that explores issues of football and the role of color in our perception?  Did you create a design campaign for a soft drink company? You can be with Pro-Folio.  Sures Kumar has created Pro-Folio.org, where you can create a fake artist website as a part of a Scientific Hoax project at the Royal College of Art, London. To make your website, you type in your name and in seconds you get a website with “stolen art,” or borrowed images from websites such as Behance.net and Squarespace.com.  When you make a site, you get a fake bio that lists your education, exhibitions, and artist statement.  Your site will most likely be a combination of photography and  design work.

The project explores issues of falsified information, identity, and open source access.  On the Pro-Folio website, Sures Kumar writes:

“Given the availability of information online ranging from open source names to college databases, computers can construct a believable identity in no time. All it takes is to carefully lay the facts in a logical sequence, which can be coded as an algorithm. If this is possible, can computer programs create all sorts of human identities in future? And what will be the motivation to do so? Will it be just populating identities and adding noise to our already overloaded Internet or will it give birth to interesting, engaging, avant-garde, mysterious identities and art works?”

The project was made using alogorithms to combine technology including PHP, MySQL, Processing, HTML, CSS, Javascript  and text and  images from Behance.net, Cargocollective.com, Squarespace.com, and Artybollocks.com.

You can watch a video about the making of the project, and make your own portfolio on Pro-Folio right now!

 

Image Source and Links:

www.pro-folio.org

Pro-Folio – Video of the Making Of 

Sures Kumar Portfolio Site

GOSSIP for 2 – A Cake Meant to Be Shared

GOSSIP for 2 – A Cake Meant to Be Shared

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Every meet a friend for coffee or dinner, and you share a dessert?  This interaction of spending time talking over dessert inspired a special cake designed by Julie Hinault, a food designer and Olivier Dessyn, pastry chef and owner of Mille Feuille Bakery Café.  The two collaborated to to create “GOSSIP for 2,” which is a cake designed for two people to share as they talk, gossip, or share things with each other.

The idea for the project started in France, while Hinault was developing her master thesis and was questioning the relationship between food, conversation, and the special status of dessert. She writes on her site, ”Dessert is often seen as an indulgence, many of us often share a cake, or only take a small piece. We cannot bare the idea of indulging alone, we prefer to share our guilt!”

Hinault worked with pastry chef, Olivier Dessyn to create a delicious and unique cake made with almonds, coconut, bitter chocolate mousse, pineapple, and lime. The cake is frosted with two tones of frosting, indicating that it is meant to be shared.

Curious to share with a friend?  You can get the cake for $12 at  the Mille Feuille Bakery Café, located in New York.  Yum!

 

Links and Images:

www.juliehinault.com

www.millefeuille-nyc.com

 

BKLYN Herb Packaging Give Fresh Herbs a New Look

BKLYN Herb Packaging Give Fresh Herbs a New Look

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Mint, basil, or thyme that comes from Brooklyn?   Rooftop gardens are on the rise in many urban areas including Brooklyn, NY. Matthew Krupitsky designed a simple package for herbs and vegetables grown in rooftop gardens that literally says “Made In Brooklyn” in bright colors, in order to help promote the origin of the vegetables.

The label is shaped in the shape of Brooklyn, and is tear and waterproof.  The label can be reused to help hold other veggies.  Where can you see it?  Brooklyn, where else?

 

Links and Images:

Matthew Krupitsky – Made in Brooklyn Rooftop Garden