ON FOOD
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Author / Producer
Date
2020
Publication Type
Doctoral Thesis
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
We live in a world of plenty. Natural riches and cultural artefacts. Human intellect and
powerful technologies. We revel in an abundance of energy and information. Everything
is available to us. Nevertheless the contemporary paradigm of thinking is dominated by
the principles of scarcity. Holistic approaches aim to sustain our habitat by means of an
expanded understanding of the Planet Earth. The knowledge gained intents to provide
mankind with the necessary toolset to act proportionally and maintain a balance in
nature. With this thinking, however, we remain within the confines of a nature which has
been considered an inevitable necessity to this day.
In this dissertation, we primarily meditate upon the notions of Land- and City-
Scapes. We take ourselves into a cataract of indexes and mark two different bodies of
thinking which address nature in an orthogonal manner. Land Scapes go in sync with
the limits of a Cosmic Mold. A Horizontal Scape frames immediately, a Flat Land which
is governed by Inert States. However City Scapes celebrate the plenty derived from a
Wandering Earth. A distant Vertical Scape casts symbolic Civic Characters, which are
staged in Venturous Plays and thus made to talk. This inversion becomes enabled by
the advent of Informational Thinking and Computational Grounds and their underlying
principles.
The intelligible structure elaborated in the first part of this dissertation requires
mediation. We therefore propose a scheme that primarily stages Specific Scapes in
order to listen to those who think they know what a certain subject is about. We prepare
Generic Grounds which allow us to erect an Intelligible Instrument. This Instrument
subsequently becomes played in various Sensible Applications. In order to show the
potentials, we embark on Four Ventures in the world of food. Venture 1 casts off
naturalized grounds and cultivates novel digestible natures. We confect Chocolate from
Cacao Cell Cultures. Venture 2 questions crafts and traditions in the vineyard. We raise
a remote Vine Yard. This informational instrument allows for the navigation of a
probabilistic cloud suspended high above the actual vineyard. Venture 3 approaches
subjects and objects of wine. We enable symbolic terroirs that give the wine itself a
voice and thus allow for rich talks. Venture 4 deals with subjects that give values to the
object of food. We cast off a Value Cloud from which numerous articulations and values
of food can be derived.
In this dissertation we present nature as contingent. Thereby Intelligible Instruments
bear novel Viands which we can render edible and visible on the sensible stage of Food.
The Venturous Plays continue to luxuriate and thereby keep the worth of food as a
cultural artefact alive.
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Publication status
published
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Contributors
Examiner : Hovestadt, Ludger
Examiner : Hühn, Tilo
Book title
Journal / series
Volume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
ETH Zürich
Event
Edition / version
Methods
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Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
Architecture; Food; Information
Organisational unit
03563 - Hovestadt, Ludger (emeritus) / Hovestadt, Ludger (emeritus)