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research_report_feral_trade [2009-02-03 21:01] – created katerich | research_report_feral_trade [2014-12-03 12:09] (current) – Links to fairtradenotes changed to fairtrade_notes nik | ||
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- | ===== research | + | ===== feral trade research ===== |
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- | ==== fair trade research ==== | + | |
==== Context ==== | ==== Context ==== | ||
- | The broad context for this research is the increasingly informationalised context in which our food products are sourced and distributed: | + | The broad context for this research is the increasingly informationalised context in which our food products are sourced and distributed: |
- | The physical context for the research is the medium of food reporting, both embedded in the product (the text and imagery found in food packaging) and external (in marketing and media). It is in part a response to the substantial data gap between the ubiquity of information sharing on screens - the multiplication of news agencies, blogs and other feeds – and the scarcity of expanded, critical or contestual viewpoints in other contemporary media operating closer to the surface of real, circulating commodity culture, such as food packaging. | + | The physical context for the research is the medium of food reporting, both embedded in the product (the text and imagery found in food packaging) and external (in marketing and media). It is in part a response to the substantial data gap between the ubiquity of information sharing on screens - the multiplication of news agencies, blogs and other feeds – and the scarcity of expanded, critical, documentary |
The research is an extension of an already active project, Feral Trade (www.feraltrade.org), | The research is an extension of an already active project, Feral Trade (www.feraltrade.org), | ||
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A particular focus is the nomad/ | A particular focus is the nomad/ | ||
- | At a daily level, the question is how to unravel the clamour of often conflicting criteria that ambush the critical shopper at point of sale - your time, its sell-by date, freshness, additives, freight and its attributes, your travel to purchase it, vendor politics, packaging, localness, farming methods, labour relations, seasonality, | + | At a daily level the question is how to unravel the clamour of often conflicting criteria that ambush the critical shopper at point of sale - your time, its sell-by date, freshness, additives, freight and its attributes, your travel to purchase it, vendor politics, packaging, localness, farming methods, labour relations, seasonality, |
Information | Information | ||
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- Feral Hamper, a boxed collection of tracked and reannotated food products, asssembled in edition of 12. These were raffled at FoAM (also during Open Kitchens) and sold to individual collectors. The hampers were accompanied by a brochure http:// | - Feral Hamper, a boxed collection of tracked and reannotated food products, asssembled in edition of 12. These were raffled at FoAM (also during Open Kitchens) and sold to individual collectors. The hampers were accompanied by a brochure http:// | ||
- A single intensive case study was undertaken of Kazi & Kazi tea, ecofarmed in the northwest border area of Bangladesh. Visits to the tea garden and corporate HQ took place in February 2008, gathering information and images to compile a more nuanced story than is currently visible in the company brochure or on-package. The Kazi tea plantation proved to be fertile territory to study the chasm between market-oriented information and locally gleaned research around this emblematic product. 300 teabags plus 1kg loose leaf tea was purchased and delivered to UK/Belgium; repackaged and distributed with complementary research findings. A video essay that traces the source of this particular tea into almost all reaches of Bangladeshi political, ecological and economic life is currently in production. | - A single intensive case study was undertaken of Kazi & Kazi tea, ecofarmed in the northwest border area of Bangladesh. Visits to the tea garden and corporate HQ took place in February 2008, gathering information and images to compile a more nuanced story than is currently visible in the company brochure or on-package. The Kazi tea plantation proved to be fertile territory to study the chasm between market-oriented information and locally gleaned research around this emblematic product. 300 teabags plus 1kg loose leaf tea was purchased and delivered to UK/Belgium; repackaged and distributed with complementary research findings. A video essay that traces the source of this particular tea into almost all reaches of Bangladeshi political, ecological and economic life is currently in production. | ||
- | - Expansion of the Feral Trade database, including a utility to output maps rendering the delivery routes of single and multiple shipments of goods (see http:// | + | - Expansion of the Feral Trade database, including a utility to output maps rendering the delivery routes of single and multiple shipments of goods (see http:// |
- Further outcomes of the research included the Nomadic Picnic, a collaboration with FoAM and gRig to serve a dinner composed of products and ingredients freighted in to Brussels in the hand baggage of travelling cultural peers. The event was commissioned by Kaaitheater, | - Further outcomes of the research included the Nomadic Picnic, a collaboration with FoAM and gRig to serve a dinner composed of products and ingredients freighted in to Brussels in the hand baggage of travelling cultural peers. The event was commissioned by Kaaitheater, | ||
- A Feral Trade Cafe for active continuation of the research is scheduled to take place at HTTP gallery in London, Summer 2009, as a located, physical interface to the project. The Cafe will serve and exhibit Feral Trade goods (current and retrospective); | - A Feral Trade Cafe for active continuation of the research is scheduled to take place at HTTP gallery in London, Summer 2009, as a located, physical interface to the project. The Cafe will serve and exhibit Feral Trade goods (current and retrospective); | ||
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On the other hand, one of the motivating problems - the overload in strident truth claims and fuzzy data in the bewildering business of shopping for food - seemed to resolve itself without much further interrogation. Both in the context of Feral Trade and at the FoAM events there emerged an apparant consensus that relations with supplier, whether the goods' producer or its handler (vendor, courier etc) was broadly valued over other criteria of origin. More than an ethical standpoint this position holds strategic value when mainstream supply chains for food and other essential goods may be suddenly under threat. | On the other hand, one of the motivating problems - the overload in strident truth claims and fuzzy data in the bewildering business of shopping for food - seemed to resolve itself without much further interrogation. Both in the context of Feral Trade and at the FoAM events there emerged an apparant consensus that relations with supplier, whether the goods' producer or its handler (vendor, courier etc) was broadly valued over other criteria of origin. More than an ethical standpoint this position holds strategic value when mainstream supply chains for food and other essential goods may be suddenly under threat. | ||
- | Significantly a singular shift in public focus toward the intersection of ecologic and economic concerns over the period of the project, served to focus public attention on the research territory (as evidenced by Kaaitheater programming its first conference around climate change and reaction with relation to the performing arts, in January '09). | + | Significantly, a singular shift in public focus toward the intersection of ecologic and economic concerns over the period of the project served to focus public attention on the research territory (as evidenced by Kaaitheater programming its first conference around climate change and reaction with relation to the performing arts, in January '09). |
Audience response showed an appetite for criticially sourced goods, as the Feral Trade hamper raffle sold 60 tickets, with 3 hampers raffled and 9 other hampers sold separately. In other supply chain progress, as a result of the Public Diet dinner, Brussels artist studios Nadine http:// | Audience response showed an appetite for criticially sourced goods, as the Feral Trade hamper raffle sold 60 tickets, with 3 hampers raffled and 9 other hampers sold separately. In other supply chain progress, as a result of the Public Diet dinner, Brussels artist studios Nadine http:// | ||
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==== References ==== | ==== References ==== | ||
- | |||
- | * // | ||
- | * //media used in the research (film, audiovisual media, photographs...)// | ||
* Karl Polanyi, the Great Transformation | * Karl Polanyi, the Great Transformation | ||
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* Black Gold (movie) | * Black Gold (movie) | ||
* Bill Brown, thing theory (JSTOR journal of critical inquiry) http:// | * Bill Brown, thing theory (JSTOR journal of critical inquiry) http:// | ||
+ | * Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Sleepwalking in a Dialectical Picture Puzzle, Part 1: A Conversation with Avery Gordon http:// | ||
+ | * Feral Trade courier database http:// | ||
| | ||
// | // | ||
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* [[recipes_for_disaster]] | * [[recipes_for_disaster]] | ||
* [[feral hamper]] | * [[feral hamper]] | ||
+ | * room self-service experiments at http:// |