Food - Bigger than the Plate
- daisypope
- Sep 29, 2019
- 4 min read
Hello! - It's been a few weeks, what with going on holiday and starting a Masters Degree at university. However I have been keeping up to date with some design releases and I have also visited the V&A. Can you believe it's 6 months since I started this blog? So to celebrate I have some original content for you. I visited the Food: Bigger than the Plate exhibition at the V&A (some of the exhibits have already been mentioned in this blog) and here is my pick of products.
If you don't already know the Food: Bigger than the plate exhibition is all about the before, during and after effects of creating food, eating it and the disposal of it. It was a very different exhibition, I have never seen anything like it before. However it was incredibly interesting and really highlighted some issues surrounding the food industry that you would have never thought about before.
Waste Mushrooms
These mushrooms are grown in waste coffee grounds from the V&A museum cafe. The waste coffee grounds are collected from the cafe, then used to grown the mushrooms, the mushrooms are then harvested and used in dishes at the V&A Cafe. It's a great example of thinking about the full life cycles of food waste. Using something you would usually throw away to create something new from it.
Merdacotta
Imagine owning a dairy farm, you have thousands of cows producing milk to create cheese everyday. However what else do the cows produce?... Manure, and what would you do with all that manure? Farmer Gianantonio Locatelli wondered just that with his 3500 dairy cows producing 150,000kg of manure daily! I'm sure he was fed up with shovelling all that s**t so decided to experiment and create Merdacotta. He developed ways to extract heat, energy and fertiliser from the manure, and the leftover solids are mixed with Tuscan clay to create Merdacotta. This is a perfect example of a waste product being thoroughly utilised for something new, what a great innovation.
Bicitractor
The majority of tractors are created to harvest one crop on a large scale. The Farm Hack groups have questioned this by creating the Bicitractor. It uses the idea that Farmers are 'tinkers' and have used the traditional skills of a Farmer to create an affordable, open source and pedal powered machine that can be created from tools and materials already found on the farm. This initiative will be particularly useful for third-world farmers who may not have the money or resources to buy more sophisticated equipment. They may also have to change the crops they are growing yearly due to differing weather conditions so a multi-use tractor would be more than useful. It would also have less of a negative environmental impact being pedal powered and having no manufacturing requirements as it is made by the Farmer himself.
Personal Food Computer
How about having your own personal mini farm? We saw the Rotafarm previously however I feel this is much more accessible to people. The plants are grown inside a chamber which is controlled through a device such as an Ipad. You can control the climatic conditions by altering the water, temperature and soil nutrients inside the chamber. This allows you to experiment with different combinations to see what effect it will have on the plants and their taste. This is a great project for people to really understand more where their food comes from and what factors will contribute to the growth of the plants.
Pollination
We have all heard the stories about the humble bumble bee numbers declining, and I don't think anyone ever quite realised how important they really are. One product at the exhibition is a human pollination kit. The products are designed for us to use and pollinate our own flower. Now, I don't think it's a practical product that we are going to be encouraged to run out and buy. But considering it would take a human hours to pollinate one flower using this kit, it really highlights the importance of our bumble bees and the need to preserve and increase their numbers. As the Designer is pointing out, there is no alternative to a bumble bee.
Eatwell
The below set is designed to help people with Alzheimers to eat independently. The bottom of the bowl is slanted so it is easier for the user to scoop out the contents. The set is also coated in a non-slip surface along with bright, contrasting colours as 'research has shown that people with dementia drink 84% more liquids when served in brightly coloured cups' (Eatwell, FOOD: Bigger than the plate, V&A Museum). This is a lovely innovative product to help with a problem thousands of people face daily. It could greatly enhance the lives of those who suffer with Alzheimers and Dementia, or even just the elderly, by providing them with some precious independence. The ease of use for the user has been thoroughly considered throughout the whole design... From the curve of the spoon for scooping, the rim on the bowl for holding and the lid and wider base on the cup for stability.
Kullay
Another design to increase a person's independence around eating is Kullay. They have designed a range of snacks who's shape determines the taste of the snack. The shapes have been designer with blind or visually impaired eaters in mind. An irregular shape with sticking out parts indicates a salty snack, where as a smooth and rounded shape is sweet. The different shapes allow those with visual impairments to gain some independence and make their own choices about what they want to eat. Perhaps this idea could even be extended to drinks, so different shaped bottles for different tastes, or other packeted food such as pre-made sandwiches. There are many possibilities of design to enhance the choices that need to be made.
Well that concludes my top picks from the exhibition. I think you'll agree there's a huge mixture of things to see (and taste) at the exhibition so get yourself down there before 20th October for some innovations, you won't be disappointed.
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