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A structured recipe notebook for Open Sauces

Here's a prototype recipe notebook for open sauces. At this point it's primarily a test of a drag/drop interface to make it possible for anyone to make the recipe graphs we explored visualising in October. I'm testing it with the recipes designed for FoAM's recent Smoke and Vapour event.

FoAM Newsletter Winter 02013

While we contemplate slowing down and revaluing silence as the northern hemisphere descends into wintry hibernation, it's time look back on FoAM's bustling activities over the last months as well as look forward to what the new year brings. Travels, talks, workshops, celebrations, residencies (punctuated by copious EC reporting and accounting) -- there’s been much interesting ferment (and fermentation). Some things are simmering down, more is bubbling up, and there's much that is quite new to all of us. At FoAM Brussels we continue to deepen and broaden our investigations in food and speculative culture. FoAM Kernow has found its niche in blending science, technology and the arts, thereby benefiting both the scientific community and wider society. FoAM Amsterdam is touring the world with Sphaerae, and FoAM Nordica consolidates its work on Foodprints. So without further ado, here’s a guided tour of the highlights. We hope you’ll be inspired, and be in touch!

Creating Smoke & Vapour

Looking back at the ideas and processes involved in creating Smoke & Vapour, a synaesthetic degustation dinner served at FoAM in Brussels in November 2013. From sound to taste, co-creation and mindfulness, cooking and designing a flow, this post provides an insider's view of FoAM's transdisciplinary kitchen (literally and figuratively).

Parnidžio Kopa

Parnidžio Kopa, Nida, 19–20 November 2013 One of the major tourist attractions near Nida Art Colony is the Parnidžio Kopa. Human pressure on vegetation at the site is quite visible, along with the marks left by wild boar. As an exercise in naturalistic landscaping, I set out to make some of the human traces invisible by restoring the worn out vegetation to something approaching a more 'untouched' appearance.   Closeup view during the process

Lies Declerck over grenzen, werk en familieresidenties

Ik las onlangs dat we grenzen vaak benaderen als iets wat dingen van elkaar scheidt, maar dat je er evengoed naar kunt kijken als iets wat dingen met elkaar verbindt. Ik wil het hier liever hebben over grenzen als connector dan als obstakel. Ik wil het over grenzen hebben als iets wat iets mogelijk maakt en dat 'iets' is 'het andere'.

Assisted migration

Discussing the opportunities and limits in current ecological practices, local wilderness aesthetics and revegetation policies on the Neringa peninsula and the Curonian Spit National Park.

Smoke & Vapour Menu

This menu hints at the smoky, misty garden of earthly delights, with seasonal ingredients supplied by local farmers and foragers, blended with produce from FoAM's recent travels.

Practical Utopias

Designed as a site-specific reality game inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s World Game simulation, Practical Utopias aimed to be a reflection of the desire to change our current society by developing more or less practical alternatives. Together with Tim Boykett and Tina Auer of Time’s Up (the coordinators of Future Fabulators), we embarked on the summit not quite knowing what to expect but excited to be collaborating with our fellow practical utopians amidst the amazing scents of wild thyme, musty mushrooms, sweet rosehip, salty brine, and the historical and mythical resonances imbued in these islands from Roman times through to Tito.

Biochymickal Arts (notes and references)

The Biochymickal Arts workshop resulted in a voluminous and multifarious stream of notes, images, plastics, pickles, cultures, gestures, fragments, curious digressions, partial examinations and open questions – some of which can be found in the following links.

Biochymickal Arts (day three)

Day three of the Biochymickal Arts workshop led us to improvise and speculate on closing waste loops with biomaterials, alternative approaches to intelligent biological systems, and the politics of DIY biology in a post-biopunk era. More detailed notes can be found on the libarynth.

Biochymickal Arts

Discussing the tacit languages and gestures of fermentation and their many "cultures" across environments and habitats, essence and code.

Obstinate lump: a microresidency in dough

Both of us (Bridget Currie and Chloe Langford) had independently used dough in varying forms in our artistic practices before our microresidency at FoAM. Chloe had mostly used salt doughs without yeast, and Bridget had explored commercial yeast and sourdough. Our interest in working together sprang from shared ideas about dough as a medium: 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. Our aim in the microresidency was to experiment with a variety of yeast-based doughs in order to examine more closely how the material best “expressed itself” (an admittedly subjective concept) in sculptural forms.

Smoke & Vapour

We beginnen langzaam aan met de voorbereidingen voor Smoke & Vapour. We experimenteren met warm en koud roken in de Big Green Egg en The Smoking Gun, lezen over de geschiedenis van de barbecues en mythes over stoomgeesten, brainstormen over de inhoud en vorm van het diner.  Smoke & Vapour wordt een proefavond waar een speciaal ontworpen menu van kleine gerechten op een verrassende manier gecombineerd wordt met geïmproviseerde muziek en een kookperformance.  

Looking back at Improving Reality

Last week Nik and I travelled to Brighton, UK for Improving Reality, a conference exploring the question: "How are artists, technologists and writers subverting our notion of reality?" This year's focus was on the systems and infrastructures that shape our world, as well as reimagining realities of the near and far future. The day was filled with thought-provoking concepts, projects and critiques of the status quo. For both Nik and me the conference was marked by strong mood swings, oscillating between bubbling optimism and detatched pessimism – each extreme fuelled by the presentations of some very eloquent speakers.

De oogst van een kookresidentie

Hoe valt een week huisvrouw spelen te rijmen met 'kunst'? Dat heb ik me gedurig afgevraagd. Voor ik moeder werd, beschouwde ik 'alles huishoudelijk' (koken incluis) als te banaal en te rolbevestigend om er tijd aan te verspillen. Ik heb geschreven, getekend, gefotografeerd, video-installaties gemaakt en ge'performed', tentoonstellingen geconcipieerd – en nu ik voor een kunstenaarsresidentie word uitgenodigd, ga ik… koken?!

Sphaerae, Total Recall, Future Fabulators, Improving Reality

The first week of September seems to be filled with grandiose titles at FoAM. We invite you to join us for Improving Reality in Brighton, Total Recall in Linz and/or follow our activities of Future Fabulators, a new collaborative project exploring the interstices between future studies and narrative.

Generous generalists

Lies and Adriaan Declerck were a Family in Residence at FoAM Brussels for a week in August and have offered us a new experience: the residents come to FoAM with a specific purpose to get to know us better and to 'serve' us by cooking lunches for a week (inspired by the Greek term leitourgia that originally meant 'servant'). Lies wanted to explore what it would be like to be a 'generous generalist' in our studio and in return become a part of the FoAM family. It made us reflect on Family Residencies, work and life at FoAM in Brussels.

Sphaerae lichtgewicht paviljoen

Hoe zou het zijn om te worden ondergedompeld in een omgeving van pure perceptie, waarin al je zintuigen worden geprikkeld? Een ruimte die de scheidslijn tussen binnen en buiten laat vervagen, een vorm waar de omgeving en het menselijke een worden? In Sphaerae ontmoeten kunst, wetenschap, natuur, filosofie, en de alledaagsheid in elkaar. Zo ontstaat er een zone die nieuwe verbeeldingen stimuleert. Sphaerae is een lichtgewicht draagbaar paviljoen.

Resilients Gatherings

Over two years of Resilients, we held a series of gatherings to share knowledge and experiences related to topics of resilience and atemporality. This post is an overview of all gatherings organised in Belgium, Austria and the UK.

A changeist in microresidency

While discussing various plans to continue FoAM's experiments with prehearsals and ARNs, we were introduced to Scott Smith's work in "critical futures" by Honor Harger and an erratic exchange ensued. There were some obvious common threads and just as many distinct differences in approach to encourage further conversation. Since we've been experimenting with residency formats recently, it was a perfect opportunity to spend a day together as one of our first 'microresidencies'

PARN books fresh off the press

We're happy to announce that copies of the PARN book co-edited by Time's Up and FoAM have arrived in our studio in Brussels. If you'd like to get a copy, pass by during our next Apero (Friday the 5th of July) and join us in raising a glass to celebrate the completion of this great project. You can find the electronic version of the publication at http://timesup.org/parnpublication

On human and vegetal resilience in Southeast Asia

After winding up the final threads of the Resilients project and submitting our last piece of spreadsheet art to the EC, Nik and I departed on a field trip to Burma (Myanmar). The primary aim of our trip was to attend the YGL Alumni Summit and the World Economic Forum on East Asia – grandiosely entitled "Courageous Transformation for Inclusion and Integration." But on the way we also had the chance to experience social and cultural resilience in some very different contexts.

Anthropocene: tended wildernesses

At present the landscape of the Anthropocene is starting to reveal itself to us in all of its devastation. It looks like it needs our tending.

FoAM Newsletter Spring 02013

Dear collaborators, colleagues and friends, along with the full bloom of spring we are pleased to bring you the latest seasonal newsletter from FoAM. This time round we have a lot of wrapping up to report - and much that is soon to be unwrapped. Read on for the full story.

Cat Jones residency: a seasonal botanic retreat

Between February and April 2013 Cat Jones was in residence at FoAM researching for her project, Transcontinental Garden Exchange — an experiment in communication between Homo sapiens and flora to highlight how our green friends have seeded change in our social history and behaviour. Whilst at FoAM Cat researched the scientific and social history of human-plant relationships, plant signalling and the possibilities for ther manifestation between humans and flora.

The identity of trees: workshop and walk

Pursuing the research and reflections we began in the Legal Identity for Trees workshop last October, Heath Bunting, Rasa Alksnyte and An Mertens hosted another ‘arboreal identity’ workshop on 6–7 April, this time part of the Bessst initiative supported by the VGC. We shared the results with a wide audience during the 2013 Erfgoeddag (Heritage Day) on 21 April and the Zoniënmars event on 28 April.

Radio MUSE-E 2013

From January to March 2013 MUS-E artists Elias Vervecken and Rebecca Lenaerts worked with fourth-grade students of BS De Regenboog (Etterbeek) and BS De Bron (Saint-Gilles) on the topic of radiophony. As usual the project concluded with a gathering at the FoAM studio. Children of two classes could get to know each other, cook and work together. The day ended with the recording of a radio show they made together.

Resilients online

We are pleased to announce the compilation of the Resilients online publication, representing the collected reflections and working notes gleaned from two years' prolific intentional voyages, experimental situations and real-life labs exploring creative resilient practices. Beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned imagery from Strangehalos, we present this rich body of material as both a finished chronicle of our endeavours and as a plentiful archive of working ideas and notes that can be built on and modified by anyone interested in pursuing it further.

Electrified: an exploration

FoAM hosted a poetic afternoon tea at the Vooruit in Ghent on Sunday the 10th of June. Our guests had  a glimpse of Borrowed Scenery, FoAM's alternate reality narrative, while tasting wild herbal teas and sweets. FoAM in Brussels and Amsterdam invited Stevie Wishart, Penelope Turner and Claud Biemans to invoke a vegetal atmosphere through music and stories, encouraging the visitors to explore their city from a plant's point of view. Music and stories are two crucial elements that will make a complex reality of Borrowed Scenery, opening on the 31st of August 2012.

Magic in Iceland

Last week Nik and I preseted at DesignTalks as part of the DesignMarch Festival in Reykjavik. We gave a talk called, after some deliberation and divination, 'Magick, Mistakes and the Multitude of Matter'. The symposium was hosted in the National Theatre (Þjóðleikhúsið) where we presented alongside graphic designer and educator Inge Drukrey, MoMA curator Juliet Kinchin and the design duo Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto (of Eley Kishimoto). The day was superbly moderated by Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir known as "a dreamer, development and conflict specialist". The topic of the symposium was "the magic of creativity" - a perfect oportunity to legitimately talk about the technology of magic(k), human-plant communication, meditative practice as invocation, storytelling as divination and other topics that have been a part of FoAM's work since its inception, albeit mostly under the surface. In Iceland we found people who were not only curiously receptive to such things, but some that are adept practitioners.