Barbican, AI More Than Human —
Food Assembly —
2019, Method —
Overpopulation, climate change, and technological advancement are all raising questions around how we create a sustainable food system in an increasingly extreme, and unpredictable world.
To raise awareness of these impending challenges we created a three day immersive exhibition at the Barbican, which used speculative design to engage the public in a provocative conversation about what and how we eat.
We conducted a series of workshops with industry experts from agriculture, retail, technology, urbanism and investment. Together we explored micro and macro trends to co-create future scenarios and imagine who would inhabit these worlds. Through refinement and ideation, three radical futures were created:
Me&I: In a world where agri and tech are inseparable, precision farming has led to hyper-personalised nutrition and a drive towards everlasting health and in-gut surveillance.
Urban Food Support: Climate change and extreme urbanisation leave nowhere left to grow other than in personal food computers at home. This leads to both an increase in community collaboration and sharing but also a rise in gene spliced seeds and antique black market poultry.
Food Fairness Co-op: Massive population growth highlights the unequal distribution of nutrition worldwide. A socially conscious group emerge encouraging everyone to eat MonoMeal™ and eat the same together. New food rituals are necessary to make the nutri-gruel more palatable.
