blog

Library Salons

In the spring we started hosting library salons, which have seen a diverse and highly entertaining crowd who never failed to surprise in their selection of reading matter. The salons are low-key public events where each of us choose a passage to read from one of the books in our library. While some of us carefully prepare our readings beforehand, others read out from a book chosen on the spur of the moment. The unplanned connections and parallels that emerged from the reading lists of these salons might be seen to represent informal serendipitous study groups on life, the universe and everything in-between.

Experimental futures

In our guise as a speculative culture laboratory we've been circling around the field of futures for several years now, but it was only from the beginning of 2014 that it became a central focus for FoAM in Brussels. Our interest in futures has been steadily growing through earlier works (such as Resilients or Luminous Green) that explored what it might mean to live with uncertainty – be it environmental, economic or cultural. We believe that dealing with uncertainty requires a particular kind of sensibility – one in which we live firmly in the present while remaining fully aware of emergent trends, and adapting accordingly.

Interstitial Cultures

From its early beginnings as a cultural department in scientific research institute, FoAM has positioned itself as a refuge for edge-dwellers, people living and working at the interstices between disciplines and cultures. The edges between art, culture, science and technology have continued to be our main focus, although we remain curious about any unexpected alliances. Our long and visceral experience at the interstices has come to the fore on several occasions this year.

Foodscapes, today and tomorrow

On possible futures of food and wellness, the craft and science of fermentation, proefstations for horticultural research and gardens as urban acupuncture points.

Hosting

A few hosting-related activities at FoAM in Brussels, including the Hosting Craft sessions, a macrotransiency, and PULSE visioning days.

Een dagboeknotitie op een eerste zomerdag

Gisteren stelde Luea de uitkomst van haar transiency residency in FoAM voor. Ze had het in haar inleiding over hoe ze zich verscheurd had gevoeld tussen de verschillende schijnbaar incompatibele rollen die ze had gespeeld. Ze had tentoonstellingen gecureerd maar had zich ondertussen ook in healing verdiept. In het kunstenveld was dat tweede taboe, dus hield ze het daar verborgen. Die verscheurdheid had ze scherp gevoeld. Als kind al had ze een ontwikkeld gevoel voor het holistische, voor de gedachte dat alles met alles verbonden was. Tijdens de residentie had ze haar rollen geïntegreerd. Uit wat ze zei sprak sterkte in kwetsbaarheid. 

Data Ecologies 14

This post seeks to narrate and summarise the proceedings of the recent Data Ecologies 14 symposium from the skewed viewpoint of an intrigued and perplexed outsider. Held over two days between 23–24 May on the theme of “languages and tools to think out loud about futures,” the symposium was conceived, organised and hosted by Time’s Up as part of the Future Fabulators project. This is the first of a three-part blog series about our adventures in Austria with Time's Up and other lovely people doing amazing things.

Lucid Dreaming a Storyworld

This is the third blog post of the Time's Up/Austria trilogy, and concludes the series. (Sort of.) It narrates a workshopped story of building a physical scenario – or rather, it tells the story of the process of physically narrating a scenario within a workshop. Or the other way round. In any case, whatever happened, it felt a lot like a (lucid – and ludic) dream.

Attersee Booksprint

This is the second of a three-part blog series that tells of how we travelled to Austria, went on strange adventures with Time's Up and Co, met remarkable people, and came back to Brussels again. This post reflects on the experience of a four-day Book Sprint (held between 26–29 May) that we participated in after the Data Ecologies 14 symposium for the purpose of distilling and possibly transforming the ideas presented there into book form. It is perhaps best read as descriptive first-person fiction masquerading as pseudoethnography – or the other way round.  

Bumper Crop

Bumper crop is an android game I’ve just started working on with Dr Misha Myers as part of the Play to Grow project: “exploring and testing the use of computer games as a method of storytelling and learning to engage urban users in complexities of rural development, agricultural practices and issues facing farmers in India.”

De praatappel

Over eten gesproken, met een vijftigtal kinderen.

Fringejoyride Residency Review

A microresidency looking at a speculative fringe community, the Bioluddites. How can speculative design create a meme that challenges us globally and socially?

Food, futures and food futures

April was a month of disparate explorations at FoAM bxl. We began with designing an Open Sauces dinner, then hosted Lisa Ma as a speculative designer in residence, mentored our current 'generalist in transience' Michka Melo, and planned various upcoming events and workshops. As the weeks progressed the contents and processes began flowing into each other, with food, futures and a sprinkling of biotechnology as strange attractors.

From the antipodean research retreat

How to imagine, discuss and rehearse a multiplicity of possible, probable and preferred futures?

Kunst in de Keuken 2014

Snoepjes zijn lekker. Tenminste, dat vindt elke kind toch?! Maar wat als we snoep in stilte eten? Zonder te praten, tot het helemaal op is. Is het dan nog lekkerder? Of juist minder lekker? We proberen het uit. Ik geef elk kind een snoepje. Ze stoppen het allemaal in hun mond en zwijgen tot het op is. Oh, dat is moeilijk!

Solar powered computation

This is a Raspberry Pi running a Racket Servlet (with the Mongoose 2000 data sync server) serving a webpage to the tablet. The neat thing is that it's running on solar power - a day of gloomy winter Cornish light (not even outside) charging the on board battery results in over an hour of running time. This includes the ad-hoc wifi transmitter, which is presumably the main power drain as the CPU usage is negligible.

DesignMarch 2013: "Magick, Mistakes and the Multitude of the Matter"

DesignMarch 2013 opens with a day of inspiring talks by internationally renowned designers and local design thinkers. From where does the magic of creativity originate? How can we better connect body and spirit? How does magic translate to different contexts? What restricts magic, what compels it? Come, feel the magic! The talks are hosted by Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir, a dreamer, development and conflict specialist.

Improving Reality 2013 - Maja Kuzmanovic

My transiency at FoAM, documented!

I have now been a macrotransient at FoAM Brussels for ten weeks, experimenting with new research methods at the frontier between science and art on a fabulous topic: how to design a more fulfilling, enjoyable and sustainable lifestyle. I am happy to announce that my documentation infrastructure is now ready for viewing!  

Eerste Mus-e dag met FoAM (2014)

Met klinken en klanken kwamen de kinderen van de Sint-Joris School Brussel samen met juf Sigrid naar binnen gestroomd, jassen uit, boekentassen in de hoek en dan vooruit naar de schommels en de fatboys... Maar al die herrie duurde niet lang.

Herinneringen aan Smoke & Vapour

Het begon al nog voor we binnen waren: aan de ingang van de zwaar metalen voordeur rookte de wierook. Eens binnen lieten we onze handen in geurig lauwwarm water glijden, waarna we ze tussen de plooien van een stijf gestoomd wit damasten tafellaken te drogen konden leggen...  

A structured recipe notebook for Open Sauces

Here's a prototype recipe notebook for open sauces. At this point it's primarily a test of a drag/drop interface to make it possible for anyone to make the recipe graphs we explored visualising in October. I'm testing it with the recipes designed for FoAM's recent Smoke and Vapour event.

FoAM Newsletter Winter 02013

While we contemplate slowing down and revaluing silence as the northern hemisphere descends into wintry hibernation, it's time look back on FoAM's bustling activities over the last months as well as look forward to what the new year brings. Travels, talks, workshops, celebrations, residencies (punctuated by copious EC reporting and accounting) -- there’s been much interesting ferment (and fermentation). Some things are simmering down, more is bubbling up, and there's much that is quite new to all of us. At FoAM Brussels we continue to deepen and broaden our investigations in food and speculative culture. FoAM Kernow has found its niche in blending science, technology and the arts, thereby benefiting both the scientific community and wider society. FoAM Amsterdam is touring the world with Sphaerae, and FoAM Nordica consolidates its work on Foodprints. So without further ado, here’s a guided tour of the highlights. We hope you’ll be inspired, and be in touch!

Creating Smoke & Vapour

Looking back at the ideas and processes involved in creating Smoke & Vapour, a synaesthetic degustation dinner served at FoAM in Brussels in November 2013. From sound to taste, co-creation and mindfulness, cooking and designing a flow, this post provides an insider's view of FoAM's transdisciplinary kitchen (literally and figuratively).

Parnidžio Kopa

Parnidžio Kopa, Nida, 19–20 November 2013 One of the major tourist attractions near Nida Art Colony is the Parnidžio Kopa. Human pressure on vegetation at the site is quite visible, along with the marks left by wild boar. As an exercise in naturalistic landscaping, I set out to make some of the human traces invisible by restoring the worn out vegetation to something approaching a more 'untouched' appearance.   Closeup view during the process

Lies Declerck over grenzen, werk en familieresidenties

Ik las onlangs dat we grenzen vaak benaderen als iets wat dingen van elkaar scheidt, maar dat je er evengoed naar kunt kijken als iets wat dingen met elkaar verbindt. Ik wil het hier liever hebben over grenzen als connector dan als obstakel. Ik wil het over grenzen hebben als iets wat iets mogelijk maakt en dat 'iets' is 'het andere'.

Assisted migration

Discussing the opportunities and limits in current ecological practices, local wilderness aesthetics and revegetation policies on the Neringa peninsula and the Curonian Spit National Park.

Smoke & Vapour Menu

This menu hints at the smoky, misty garden of earthly delights, with seasonal ingredients supplied by local farmers and foragers, blended with produce from FoAM's recent travels.

Practical Utopias

Designed as a site-specific reality game inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s World Game simulation, Practical Utopias aimed to be a reflection of the desire to change our current society by developing more or less practical alternatives. Together with Tim Boykett and Tina Auer of Time’s Up (the coordinators of Future Fabulators), we embarked on the summit not quite knowing what to expect but excited to be collaborating with our fellow practical utopians amidst the amazing scents of wild thyme, musty mushrooms, sweet rosehip, salty brine, and the historical and mythical resonances imbued in these islands from Roman times through to Tito.

Biochymickal Arts (notes and references)

The Biochymickal Arts workshop resulted in a voluminous and multifarious stream of notes, images, plastics, pickles, cultures, gestures, fragments, curious digressions, partial examinations and open questions – some of which can be found in the following links.