Pigeon Panel at 811 in Toronto

Join me on April 19th at 811 (233 Spadina), where I'm guest-curating an event on animal-human relations in urban contexts.

With Toronto's Chinatown pigeon as a starting point, three panelists will discuss their work in the context of larger issues around everyday ideologies, definitions and classifications of nature and the future of biodiversity in the age of the anthropocene. Listen to the panel while enjoying some traditional Chinese fried squab and dove-themed cocktails.

The food (graciously bred by Richview Farms, and prepared by Chinatown's Pho Hung) and drinks will start at 3:30 pm, the panel go from 4 to 5 pm. The panelists will be Mitch Akiyama, a sound artist and scholar, Chloé Roubert and Mark Peck, ornithologist at the Royal Ontario Museum and curator of "Empty Skies: the Passenger Pigeon Legacy."

Architecture's Bi-Annual Event

I was in Venice last week and it was great.

The Senses

The New York Times has recently posted two short videos rendering the senses in interesting ways. The most recent is the raw and simple footage of a deaf man describing his experience of the assumable Haitian earthquake, and the second, on ansomia, records, although slightly unsubtly, the testimonies of people who do not have a sense of smell. (And both bring up food.)

Found Public Art Fund

"Ilha das Flores": A Tomato, Thumbs and Pigs for a Short Explanation of Capitalism

Isle of Flowers (or Ilha das Flores in Portuguese) is a 1989 Brazilian short film by Jorge Furtado. Following a tomato from garden to dump, it delivers dry narration, witty editing and eclectic visuals for an unexpectingly cruel message.

Living Art, Being Dreams and Eating Frogs: Gala and Salvador Host a Party

Meat

This is a literal (hence difficult) short documentary called Le Sang des Bêtes by Georges Franju about animal slaughter and meat production. Although filmed in the late 1940s in two slaughterhouses and meat markets near Paris, this should be footage to think how we (whether in France, Canada or Italy) today (or in the 1940s) consider animal-slaughter (whether that of a horse, calf or lamb) and the ethics/responsibilities and labour behind it. 

Do we inflict more 'pain' today than yesterday on the animals we eat (how can this be assessed)? Are we more alienated from the meat we eat? Where do the butchers killing these animals come from today? What are the contemporary methods used to kill these animals? What implications do these questions have on today's food production and consumption?

Bienvenue/Welcome

I collaborated with Ming Lin and Didi Ohri on the latest edition of their anthropoartistique interventions on Montreal's foodscape: the Bienvenue/Welcome placemats. Come join the launch of the set de table tonight at the Nouveau Palais on Bernard. There will be food presented on thoughtful stuff and beats by DJ CadenceWeapon.

... And in an perfect concidence of sorts the CCA is having its own montreal food event this same afternoon: "A taste for Montréal" goes on from 4 to 9 pm in collaboration with spacingmontreal and avenue 8, and people from the SAT's foodLab and Toqué.

Swallowing in 1951

A cineradiograph of a typical normal barium swallow. The semi-solid meal passes over the back of the tongue, past the epiglottis and into the pharynx. Found at Wellcome Collection

Commodifying Rituals and Patterns at the American Anthropological Association Meeting!

 

  

What Everyone Must Carry Around

Via informationisbeautiful

"Humans Generally Respond Well to Domination": Why Tuna Fishing, Child Obesity and Apple's Integrated Designs Are All Related

This is a quote from Tim Wu, law professor at Columbia, discussing information empires. He argues that these empires start off excited about the technology they are developing - Apple was started by hackers - till they progressively become slaves to the technology itself - now Steve Jobs claims fragmented technology (vs. integrated design) to be the enemy of progress. Wu ends by saying that the next few years in the evolution of internet (and facebook) will determine the course of human culture. Wu is currently working on policy making for web neutrality, implying that the law plays a major role in steering our collective future one way or another.

Parallel to this ongoing technology and policy making debate, this morning the New York Times posted a new video on school kids' food habits. Set in a lower school in Philadelphia, the short film's overall conclusive idea is that regulation is the only really impactful way to change the next generation's weight and heart disease problem. Food empires with their marketing geniuses and food developers as well as our brain's structure are demonstrated to be so powerful that state intervention is the main and only trustworthy solution.

While I agree that regulations play a huge role in how culture and disease develop, isn't there something less authoritative we can come up with? Possibly designing more attractive solutions that don't rely on governmental impositions? Not waiting for tuna to go on the going-extinct list for us to treat it like a leopard coat or for San Francisco to ban toys on kid menus to create kid menus with less salt? 

Or are we really too controlled by our own brain (as determined by 'science'), Kellogg's and Apple that we are unable to give consciousness to our ways and change them? On that note these are pretty amazing: