Food Studies Matter, Meaning, Movement Creative Food Tarot Toolkit, Markéta Dolejšová

CREATIVE FOOD TAROT TOOLKIT PARLOUR OF FOOD FUTURES TAROT TOOLKIT FOR FOOD FUTURES is a design researcher working across the interrelated domains of sustainability transitions . Her research seeks to connect stakeholders across design , research , and practice who are interested in experimenting with diverse methods to foster regenerative , food futures . She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at in the School of Arts , Design and Architecture ( ing creative practices for transformational futures ( CreaTures ) 651

INTRODUCTION Food and food practices are essential elements of everyday life . The global food web is a complex composite of substances , processes , and meanings that are woven together by diverse eaters following distinct personal , biological , cultural , and economic values and motives . The ways that nutrients and relations flow through food systems are problematic . Far from being nourishing and regenerative , current modes of food duction , distribution , consumption , and disposal are causing ill health and amplifying climate Identifying and ing more sustainable and just is essential for life on the planet to thrive . Food system transformation has been of a central interest of many food practitioners . To address food system issues , various methods and tools have been experimented with , frequently using technological innovation . INNOVATION While the use of technology in food processes is not new ( think of spears , plows , butter churns ) recent years have seen a rapid growth of the digital From ware and online diet personalization services to food sharing apps and digital farming platforms , designers , and venture capitalists began proposing solutions for better food ( See Figure . These services and gadgets carry a promise of more efficient food futures , but they also raise concerns . How are solutions having an impact on social and cultural food et , Research , 2016 , 2017 Norton et , 2017 . 652 FOOD FUTURES TAROT

traditions ?

How are they changing eaters creative involvements with food ?

Is it safe to rely on recipes and diets designed by algorithms ?

How is the growing innovation affecting the food job market ?

How could generic , solutions cause , sustainable behavioral changes across diverse food cultures and systems ?

Figure tools are common in everyday food practices of many eaters . image ) THE PARLOUR OF FOOD FUTURES Concerns about entanglements are at the center of the Parlour of Food Futures project , which aims to provoke future food and gather from diverse eaters . Initiated in 2017 as a series of experimental food design research situated in various settings , the Parlour functions as a speculative oracle that explores possible futures through the century game of Tarot . et al . 2020 . 653

The future food explorations are performed over a bespoke deck of Food Tarot cards that present 22 tribes , imagining how food and eating practices might look in the near future ( Figure ) Although primarily , each tribe refers to an existing or emerging trend . For instance , refer to people who follow quantified diets and do health . Turing is about the use of AI in the kitchen , and Genomic refers to diet ( Figure ) Figure The Food Tarot cards toolkit . image author ) 654 FOOD FUTURES TAROT

GENOMIC DIETS DNA Al THE KITCHEN SELF . WEN . MY ems um , wan . mun Figure Speculative tribes are at the core of the Parlour project . image author ) During Tarot readings , Parlour participants are prompted to discuss issues shown on their selected cards , share their experiences and , and craft future food scenarios . FOOD TAROT The Parlour project is inspired by the Tarot technique , which has been traditionally used in card games , as Well as for divinatory purposes and future speculations . Drawing on the Tarot tion , the project aims to provoke playful yet critical food and support the notion of food futures as uncertain but always connected to the past and the present . The Food Tarot cards are designed according to the Tarot de deck ( focusing on the Major Arcana of Tarot ) The deck includes 22 cards with various philosophical and astronomical motives , embodied by elements such as The Empress or The Magician . Each of these elements has a specific symbolic meaning , which we translated into the Food Tarot version . 655

For instance , the Tarot card of The the potential for matched with the diet tribe of Food , who experiment with food printing to form ordinary food items into more spectacular forms . The Empress the dominion over growing the tribe of Gut Gardeners , who experiment with to grow their own food ( Figure ) CUT NET mag nu rum , NIwA . Figure The Food Tarot design is inspired by the Tarot de deck . image author ) To arrive at the 22 imagined food tribes , we conducted a ture review of existing and emerging We then selected 22 trends that were most interesting to us and matched those with the original symbols , thereby creating the Food Tarot deck as an experimental design toolkit to help guide critical future food . FUTURE FOOD READINGS AND Between 2017 and 2021 , we have performed the Parlour at more than 30 occasions , in venues accessible to diverse publics ing festivals , exhibitions , workshops , classrooms , and community gardens , as well as random street corners . lowing our aim to engage diverse food practitioners , we have not . See details in , 2018 . 656 FOOD FUTURES TAROT

set any specific requirements on participants skills and anyone can sit down for a reading and share what they know about food . The Food Tarot readings are similar to readings performed in traditional Tarot parlours a participant sits down , the deck , and picks a card . The reader initiates a conversation about the selected card and the food futures it represents , asking prompting questions about participant experiences and ideas . Based on how the responses unfold , the reader keeps selecting a few additional cards from the deck that are either resonant or contrasting to participants responses . Eventually , the table ends up filled with a card a a food future that reflects the reading conversation ( Figure ) When a reading is finished , a participant is asked to select one card from the final collage that they feel is the most important . They then craft a short scenario imagining that they are a member of the selected tribe ( Figure ) A few examples follow . 657

Figure Food Tarot reading in the Parlour performed at the festival in Munich . image author ) 653 FOOD FUTURES TAROT Figure Future food scenarios created by Parlour participants can have multiple forms , including drawings , written texts , or crafted artefacts . image author ) exchange club and social breastfeeding Inspired by the card of Ethical preferring to eat themselves as an ethical alternative to consuming animal Parlour participant at the Emerge exhibition in ( USA ) proposed a scenario for convivial food futures . In his imagined future as an Ethical Cannibal , he would consume special to tweak his gut and grow edible mushrooms on his skin . Instead of feeding just self , he would share his harvest with others in the Exchange community space for peer exchange of edible proteins cultivated in and on human bodies ( Figure ) A similarly focused response to the Ethical Cannibals card was presented by a participant at the festival in bourne , Australia , who suggested the idea of social breastfeeding . 659

Instead of breastfeeding only her baby , she imagined sharing the nourishing protein in her milk with a broader circle of friends and family , as well as with any other animals in need of good nutrition . Both scenarios on broken global food supply chains and unevenly distributed food resources , proposing human as a nutritious resource for human and eaters . The implementation of the proposed ideas would require a radical shift in values , and the scenarios thus serve as a provocation , raising for debate the role of human ies in supporting regenerative food futures . ETHICAL CANNIBALS EAT YOURSELF BODY AS A FARM HUMAN EAT MEAT ii ?

Figure The Exchange Club scenario . image author ) Genomic surveillance algorithmic chefs During our reading of the Genomic card , a participant at the Cross festival in Prague pointed out the growing volume of sensitive personal data that people share over online diet services ( demographic and metabolic details , genetic information ) Her scenario includes a drawing of herself walking in a street full of food , ice cream FOOD FUTURES TAROT

, cheese and wine sadly into the ping windows , unable to buy anything . Figure ) As the participant explained , her bank card ( in the scenario world ) is connected to her personal genetic data profile , which is managed by her health insurer . Aiming to keep their clients fit and profitable assets , the insurance company does not allow her to purchase foods that are considered unhealthy . Reflecting on the Food card , a young mother ing the Emerge Parlour highlighted the simulacral character of cooking with smart food technologies While having the illusion of preparing their food by themselves , users rely on algorithmic commands prescribed by smart machines , such as automated , ovens and intelligent In her scenario , she envisioned a Food future in which people stop eating food altogether and become Food Replicants . Figure ) These dystopian scenarios illustrate concerns with the nefarious role of novel food technologies , as surveillance tools restrict people personal choices and agency . Their ity as cooks as well as their gustatory joys are inhibited by the cold efficiency of vigilant algorithmic chefs . See details in 2018 . 661

DNA mu mu ! in nu Figure A dystopian scenario imagining future surveillance performed over food and health data ( image author ) TOWARDS TRANSFORMATIVE FOOD FUTURES Since the start of the Parlour project , we have collected written notes from over 160 Food Tarot readings and the same number of scenarios . The scenario examples described above illustrate the kind of critical , imaginative that the experimental Food Tarot toolkit can provoke . The personal shared by Parlour participants are both optimistic and sceptical , provocative and practical , cal and serious . They touch upon broader social circumstances of innovation as well as personal . The breadth of these ideas illustrates a variety of perspectives on how to approach contemporary issues . The cards do not provide instructive recipes for better food . Instead of being didactic , they provoke critical thinking , enable a space for playful learning and nurture imagination . They do not support transformative food action on a systemic level but they can help people , and imagine how food futures might essential , although only partial , step in 662 FOOD FUTURES TAROT

any sustainable food It is vital to note that the Food Tarot encounters in the Parlour have not been always and inspiring . Sometimes , participants engaged on a rather superficial level , focusing on the decidedly of the imagined diet tribes , rather than on the provocations that they carry . This is a of the card deck as a critical design four ! I ?

Jam ( I Ma my mac ' wot hue . will , Figure The scenario explains Food practices will be effective but joyless . We will become a tasteless society of Food ( image author ) Besides performative readings in the Parlour , we have used the Food Tarot toolkit as a pedagogical prop in various food and design research courses and workshops . The data collected from readings and course observations helped us to make better sense of innovation and gain a deeper understanding of what technology can do in various social and cultural food As a toolkit for experimental food practitioners , the Food Tarot deck is available for free under a Creative Commons license . Wilde , et al . 2021 . See , 2021 for details . For details of Parlour research , see , 2018 2021 . 663

References , 2016 ) A Taste of Big Data on the Global Dinner Table . journal for Artistic Research , issue , 2018 ) Edible Speculations Food Interaction . Doctoral dissertation , National University of Singapore . 2021 ) Edible Speculations Designing Everyday for Food Futures . Global Discourse , Bristol University Press . 60695592 8265 , Khot , Davis , A . 2018 ) Designing Recipes for Digital Food Futures . In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems ( CHI EA 18 ) New York , NY , USA , Paper . Wilde , and Davis , 2020 ) Disrupting ( Interaction Experimental Design , and Futures . of the Designing Interactive Systems Conference ( DIS 20 ) Association for Computing Machinery , New York , NY , USA . Research ( 2021 ) Food Tech Market By Technology Type ( Mobile App , Websites ) By Service Type ( Online Food Delivery , Online Grocery Delivery , OTT Convenience vices ) By Product Type ( Meat , Fruits and Vegetables , Dairy ) and By Region , Forecasts to 2027 . Report ID . 2017 ) Cooking , eating , uploading digital food . The Handbook of Food and Popular Culture , 664 FOOD FUTURES TAROT

Norton , Prost , Bates , and , 2017 ) A grand challenge for food , interactions , 24 ( Wilde , van , Davis , Raven , 2021 upcoming ) Troubling the Impact of Food Future . Proceedings of the 2021 Nordic Design Research Conference ( et al . 2019 ) Food in the the Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems . The Lancet 393 , 10170 , 18 ) 665