Organoleptic Interfaces

283 Pages·2016·18.7 MB·English

THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF LICENTIATE OF ARCHITECTURE
Organoleptic Interfaces:
Exploring Embodied Methods in Foodscapes
ANNA MARIA ORRÙ
Department of Architecture
CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Gothenburg, Sweden 2016
Organoleptic Interfaces:
Exploring Embodied Methods in Foodscapes
ANNA MARIA ORRÙ
© Anna Maria Orrù, 2016
Department of Architecture
Chalmers University of Technology
SE-412 96 Gothenburg
Sweden
Telephone [phone]
Chalmers Reproservice
Gothenburg, Sweden 2016
PhD is financed jointly by Chalmers Architecture, Mistra Urban Futures, and
FORMAS through ResArc - Swedish Research School in Architecture
Front Cover Photo: Milad Abedi
Abstract
Organoleptic Interfaces:
Exploring Embodied Methods in Foodscapes
Anna Maria Orrù
Department of Architecture, Chalmers University of Technology
In the move to re-acquaint urban green and in-between spaces as solely parks and open spaces, this
research looks to the concept of emerging foodscapes to form a transformative behaviour with food in
the city. Urban population growth, unstable food security, environmental consequences of industrial
food production are all motives for concern, alongside individual awareness of food provisioning,
seasonal availability and behaviour. As these challenges increase in complexity, alternate methods and
processes are needed to formulate a symphony of relations to instigate action and agency from urban
inhabitants that need to be put into dynamic constructs to revise behaviours and reframe patterns of
thought.
The research methodology embarks on artistic-based explorations into the role of corporeal
thinking, situated knowledge, and sensorial relevance for studying the relation between body, food,
and time within urban-making. In order to explore what spatial immersions could trigger behavioural
shifts, the research approach has two sequential phases with three conceptual ingredients: embodiment,
the senses and time in preparation for relating to the body as a mode of enquiring to space.
Phase 1 deals with 2 types of critical cartography: bodily and digital staging diverse modes of
movement and immersion from feet to mouth through two overland green safaris, an app interface
survey, and a tracing of the memory through place. Phase 2 deals with a bodily choreography and
‘instruction’ to find deeper forms of visceral enquiry via Butoh dance and other conditions for making
and staging fiction. Each phase is done under two constructed platforms for the investigations, Gröna
Linjen in Stockholm and AHA Festival in Gothenburg, that endeavour to ‘amplify’ the everyday
experience around food. All experiments generate different modes of relating to the environment to
produce situated knowledge using key methodological models including imagineering and staging
fiction, metaphor and performativity. Thereby they also open for further theoretical approaches.
The findings from these dynamic corporeal assemblages is that in the process of embodiment, the
invisible is made visible. In essence the body becomes a ‘connector’; between behaviour and space,
everyday rhythms and ecology, and between humans and plants creating zones for meaning and
deeper commitment.
Keywords: urban-making, embodiment, artistic research, foodscapes, relational assemblages, ecological
architecture, performativity, imagineering, critical cartography, choreography
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List of Papers and other Publications
Paper 1
Orrù, A.M., 2015. Extracting Urban Food Potential: design-based methods for digital and bodily
cartography. Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society, 3(1 Special Issue: Finding
Spaces for Productive Cities), pp.48–62. Available at: http://fofj.org/index.php/journal/article/
view/147.
Paper 2
Orrù, A.M., 2015. Time for an Urban (Re)evolution - Negotiating Body, Space and Food. In The
1st PARSE Biennial Research Conference on Time. Gothenburg, Sweden.
Other Publications
Orrù, A.M., 2016. Extracting Urban Green Potential: Critical Design-Based Use of Digital and
Bodily Cartography Methods. In R. Roggema, ed. Sustainable Food Planning Vol 2. Newcastle
upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Chapter 44.
Essay 1
Orrù, A.M., 2016. Matkultur Framtidens Metabolismer. In Spridd, ed. Future People’s Palace.
Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 123–154.
Foodprints
Orrù, A.M., 2012. Foodprints, Innovative Kultur: Kulturförvaltningen, Sweden.
(NOTE: This publication is quite long and extensive, and as a prestudy, will not be included in the
back of the this book. The entire book is available at: annamariaorru.com/Foodprints
Digest Series
Orrù, A.M., 2015. Digest 01 - Green Line, Gothenburg, Sweden: Vegetable Lamb Press. Available at:
www.vegetablelambpress.com.
Orrù, A.M., 2015. Digest 02 – Urban CoMapper, Gothenburg, Sweden: Vegetable Lamb Press.
Available at: www.vegetablelambpress.com.
Orrù, A.M., 2015. Digest 03 – Instant Cartography, Gothenburg, Sweden: Vegetable Lamb Press.
Available at: www.vegetablelambpress.com.
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List of Appendices
Appendix 1 - Set up for Ekolåden Experiments
Appendix 2 - Set up for Gröna Linjen Safari Experiments
Appendix 3 - Urban CoMapper Interviews (transcriptions)
Appendix 4 - Butoh Workshop ‘Bodily cartography via Butoh’ (Q&A)
List of Abbreviations
AESOP - Association of European Schools of Planning
COP – Conference of the Parties (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change)
CPUL – Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes
EUGEO - The Association of Geographical Societies in Europe.
FAO – Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
FORMAS - Swedish Research Council
IFPRA - International Federation of Parks and Recreation Administration
IGU - International Geographical Commission: Urban Geography Commission
PARSE – Platform for Artistic Research Sweden
Resarc - Swedish Research School in Architecture (resarc.se)
UA – Urban Agriculture
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List of Figures and Tables
Tables
Table 1 - Four definitions of seasonal eating
Table 2 - Research Interventions, platforms, methodology, papers and research questions
Table 3 - Phase 1, 2 and other results
Table 4 - Brief summary of points from Urban CoMapper interviews
Figures
Figure 1 - Foodprints hand-held ruler for food system discourse
Figure 2 - Foodscapes | Sensescapes
Figure 3 - The Ecolåden Experiment
Figure 4 - Nordic (Stockholm) seasonal eating chart
Figure 5 - City as a ‘Superorganism’
Figure 6 - Sarah Wigglesworth Architects: 9 Stock Orchard Street, London UK
Figure 7 - The Six Parameters of Research in Paper 1 and 2
Figure 8 - Paper 1 Explorative Interfaces
Figure 9 - Paper 2 Explorative Interfaces
Figure 10 - Sensorial dialogue diagram between senses and space
Figure 11 - Images from Lillemor Boschek’s MA thesis
Figure 12 - Assemblage diagram for PhD components
Figure 13 - Frauke performance at Göteborg Konsthallen ‘How to be invisible’
Figure 14 - Butoh diagram of posture
Figure 15 - Diagram of senso-motoric functions linking body to space.
Figure 16 - Urban CoMapper Interface (3 screen shots) - Categories for registration
Figure 17 - Urban CoMapper Interface (3 screen shots) - Categories for existing and potential sites
Figure 18 - Urban CoMapper diagram showcasing the systems sequence framework for data
Figure 19 - Gröna Linjen Safari 1 map, Safari 2 map
Figure 20 - Gröna Linjen Safari 1, 15 June 2014
Figure 21 - Gröna Linjen Safari survival guide booklet
Figure 22 - Artist Malin Lobell’s exhibition on the politics of plants
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Figure 23 - Andrea Hvistendahl ‘No Waste Cooking’ performance
Figure 24 - Artists Malin Lobell and Ulrika Jansson in discussion
Figure 25 - Gröna Linjen core team preparing for Safari 2 intervention
Figure 26 - Gröna Linjen Safari 2 map: A day agenda for 4 sites
Figure 25 - Safari 2, preparations at potential site inspection
Figure 26 - Safari 2 invited artists: Malin Lobell foraged map and the Sunshine Socialist Cinema
Figure 27 - Gröna Linjen Safari 2, 21 September 2014
Figure 28 - Poster for AHA festivals 2014 and 2015
Figure 29 - Careri (top row) and Fulton (bottom row) staging their ‘walking’ interventions
Figure 30 - AHA Festival 2014: Making of Paperscapes
Figure 31 - AHA Festival 2014. Organoleptic Interfaces Butoh Performance
Figure 32 - Butoh workshop: phase 1
Figure 33 - Butoh workshop: phase 2
Figure 34 - Butoh workshop: phase 3
Figure 35 - Butoh workshop: phase 4
Figure 36 - Butoh training with Frauke indoors: a circular performance
Figure 37- Butoh workshop: question and discussion
Figure 38 - Finding guides for Instant Cartography
Figure 39 - Urban CoMapper - Preliminary visualized map after Safari
Figure 40 - A desire for agency
Figure 41- Three Gradients of Human / Nature Lenses & the micro/Macro levels of my research
Figure 42- Pietrasanta garden
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Acknowledgements
This thesis is supported by Chalmers Department of Architecture along with Mistra Urban
Futures Research institute. I am grateful for the opportunity to embark on this PhD and for your
continued support and dedication to the research I am proposing. In the department, thank you to
Marie Strid, Anna-Johanna Klasander and Krystyna Pietrzyk and for your sincere support during
these first years.
I would like to thank my supervising team for their reflections, inputs and inspiration leading
up to this licentiate. This includes Catharina Dyrssen and Jaan-Henrik Kain, and Nel Janssens who
joined in the last months but who has been a vital influence since early on. I would especially like to
extend my heartfelt thanks to Catharina Dyrssen for her steadfast confidence, optimism, wealth of
knowledge and motivation for my research, always providing encouraging and progressive feedback
for me to continue on into the artistic research. Also my warmest thanks to Susan Kozel for her
valuable input, enthusiasm and generosity to give supervision.
On this note, I would very much like to thank Fredrik Nilsson for his unfaltering belief and
support in the department’s artistic research endeavours, and in his ensuing support for the AHA
festival now running a 3rd year. Here I would like to recognize and thank my colleagues; Peter
Christensson, Andrej Slavik, Anita Ollár, and Claes Caldenby who embarked on creating the festival
with me. At Mistra Urban Futures, Ulrica Gustafsson, Ann-Louise Hohlfält and Mikael Cullberg,
must also be thanked for their support for my festival interventions.
For collaborations, I wish to thank the Gröna Linjen team, the Living Archives team (Elisabet
Nilsson, Susan Kozel & Veronica Wiman), Caroline Lundblad for your elegance and for introducing
me to Butoh, Peter Christensson for our artistic morning inspirations, and Hye Kyung Lim for our
work together on the Urban CoMapper app design. Also, thank you to all Chalmers students who
participated in the interventions and workshops and for your valuable input.
To Lena Falkheden, Henrietta Palmer, Inger-Lise Syversen and Björn Malbert, I thank you for
your belief and continued interest in my research. I would also like to extend this gratitude to André
Viljoen, Katrin Bohn, & Rob Roggema of the AESOP Sustainable Food Planning team for their
support for my research. I am grateful for the positive verve and discussion with my PhD colleagues;
Ami Skanberg Dahlstedt for our writing collaborations. Hye Kyung Lim for your enduring positive
encouragement, and to Sigrid Östlund for your reinforcement. Thank you also to Lisa Bomble,
Johanna Eriksson, Pernilla Hagbert, Frans Magnusson, Stig Anton Nielsen and Jon Geib for being a
part of this journey. And, gratitude to Meike Schalk for your invaluable feedback at the 50% seminar.
Most warmly, thank you to my partner Morten Søndergaard who has been a solid marble
mountain; poetic, encouraging, and sustaining, at times pulling me out for nature walks which have
kept me going. And, thank you to my mother for your confidence and hope for my journey.
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A Metaphor for Chapter Sequencing
Food has always been a vital ingredient in my family – both on the Italian and Polish side. All
bodily behaviour revolved around eating. When to leave and when to come home. When to take
a break from work, and when to find a moment of reflection in the day. When to find enjoyment
or solace. Life occurs in the interstitial spaces of food – its gathering, growing, cooking, eating and
preparing. And ofcourse! the conversations and planning of it – the meal. Hence, the chapters are
presented in the form of a metaphor for preparing a ‘meal.’ The preparation of my research has felt at
times like an edible feast and you are invited to partake.
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