Food Studies Matter, Meaning, Movement Creative Food Tours, Natalie Doonan

CREATIVE FOOD TOURS NATALIE TOUCHING FOOD , VIRTUALLY TASTING Natalie is an artist , writer , and educator Her research focuses on food , place , and the senses . Natalie work has been shown in exhibitions and festivals across Canada and . Her writing has appeared in professional and peer reviewed art and food culture publications . She serves as tant Professor in the Department of Communication at ' de Montreal . Learning Outcomes 162 TOUCHING FOOD , VIRTUALLY TASTING

After reading and discussing this text , students should be able to Explain how creative can be crucial to learning and discovery in food studies research . Identify the advantages of developing sensory perception of the environment , and also the reasons for maintaining distance . Express the possibilities and the pitfalls of extending taste and touch through new media . Create a work that communicates the ways in which a plant nourishes the world . INTRODUCTION What might it mean to walk or to eat artfully ?

How might approaching these seemingly mundane actions through the framework of art ( or with aesthetic intention ) transform the experience of everyday life ?

This text describes the development of a sensory tour that uses walking , tasting , touching , and ing to transform environmental perception . Beginning from the premise that art can and even change perception , the project described below encourages its participants to ine a public place . Coney Island is a tour of the Lawrence River in Verdun , Montreal . It takes the forms of both a website ( featuring an active map with a series of videos ) and a series of walks in the waterfront park . Through a combination of ied actions such as walking and tasting , and immersive like viewing videos in a virtual reality ( headset , participants are invited to this place from perspectives . In what follows , attention is directed to the creation of the work , rather than the finished piece . This NATALIE 163

is because the process itself raises questions about the limits of human perception and about the responsibilities of humans toward other species . MAKING TOURS In my performance and multimedia work , I create scripts based on the narrative structure of walking tours . My interest in this kind of script comes from past experiences in the tourism try , especially as an art gallery tour guide . For many years , I have been interested in tours as a way of telling stories in and about place . Walking tours and taste tours are two of the most ways in which people are first introduced to places . Think about beer featuring local or plates with artisanal meats and cheeses meticulously presented on a brilliantly designed menu and sensuously described by the server . Consider the haunted pub crawl or the famous rant that requires reservations weeks in advance . These are fully crafted stories about place , designed to appeal to consumers through all of their senses . Unlike these tours though , the one that I describe in this chapter is not made to encourage sumption in bars and restaurants . Instead , it lures participants to a more ambiguous space , a place of spectacular views , by weeds that thrive in contaminated earth . HICCUPS AND ROADBLOCKS Over the last decade I have presented more than free , tours and tastings in and around These have included activities like dumpster diving and foraging for wild edible plants . This is always a tricky business , since foraging can be dangerous without proper training , and there are many food safety issues to consider . However , I encountered particular . See 164 TOUCHING FOOD , VIRTUALLY TASTING

roadblocks sometime around 2017 , when I started to work in the waterfront park in Verdun , a Montreal borough that is located on the shores of the Lawrence River . The first hiccup came when I began proposing ideas for transforming the waterfront weeds into edible concoctions for public events . This was a lem for two reasons first , the municipality prohibits tion of any plants that grow in this park , since it is a area literally constructed from garbage backfill extracted during the construction of the Montreal metro in the . The cern is that plants growing in potentially toxic soil could be detrimental to human health . A related concern that is not to Verdun is that certain plants , whether or not they are growing in toxic soil , are noxious for humans . Milkweed is one relevant example , since the latex in its pods pose a threat to some people . On top of this , plants can easily be and thus cause poisoning . The second snag in my plans for taste tours along the river had to do with a specific plant that grows there , or common reed . This is a Eurasian perennial reed grass that has made its way to the banks of the Lawrence after hitching a ride on trade ships that travel through the Lawrence Seaway . The plant has been widely identified as a threat to biodiversity as it is hardy , spreads easily , and crowds out other plants , while also eliminating animal habitats . The common reed thrives in full sun and flourishes in the conditions created by a warming climate . Long , silky hairs sprouting from the top of stems sway in the breeze , dispersing tiny seeds as they flow . The organization has been engaged in what seems to be an uphill battle removing common reed stands on Verdun waterfront . A biologist trained me to perform this removal operation , but it is very easy to propagate the seeds while doing so . Some biologists from were thus understandably against my idea of sharing common reed with the public , fearing that this would encourage NATALIE 165

people to cut the plants and increase their spread . Others thought it was a good idea to do this as part of a workshop that would teach people about the threats posed by the plants . WHAT IS THE PLACE OF HUMANS HERE ?

These complications surrounding human consumption of called wild plants offer rich opportunities for examining the negotiation of self and other . The construction of a dike along the waterfront in the early century prevented seasonal , thus allowing people to settle in Verdun . At the same time , the dike eradicated the habitat of other species , for example fish spawning grounds . Later , a park was created beside the Lawrence , bringing humans into closer contact with the river ecology . Through urban planning , the waterfront has been shaped and embellished using potentially toxic stuff ( the backfill mentioned above ) in order to encourage human connections with nature . The risk posed by toxicity means that barriers must be maintained between this stuff and human bodies . It is that the waterfront park was created to bring pedestrians and swimmers into a more intimate relationship with a river that itself is also perceived as a threat , and which must be held at a distance . What do these relations tell us about human subjectivity ?

Should we get closer to nature , developing our awareness of plant , animal , and insect life , or is it preferable for us to maintain a respectful distance ?

and dumpster divers observe a ethic of restraint . There are common rules of practice that have been developed within these communities to preserve the of others , both human and . For example , it is agreed that you should never take more than you need , and always leave enough for other people , and in the case of 166 TOUCHING FOOD , VIRTUALLY TASTING

plants , for their continued This ethic emphasizes the of communities , rather than individuals . Furthermore , it challenges consumers to consider food from perspectives . Harvesting weed , for example , has an impact on pollinators that depend on this food source . This means that in harvesting milkweed , we may be human tastes over more pressing ecological needs . The notion of interdependence is gaining traction over stories that place humans at the top of the food chain , or in competition with other species ( and with other humans too , for that matter ) What relationships and responsibilities do humans have toward other species ?

Foraging and dumpster diving are practices that challenge the dissections that we try ( and fail ) to perform between ourselves and the world . Rather than approaching weeds or discarded food as waste or as trash , and ster divers treat these as valuable sources of nourishment . In my proposal to serve of common reed , I intended to bring tasters into a more intimate contact with these plants , making plant and human one through the act of tion . In my process of developing tours in Verdun , however , I eventually became aware of the fact that approaching an as an edible landscape can lead to outcomes that are beneficial to humans but detrimental to plants . Sometimes the best thing we can do for local is to leave them alone . TASTING WITH THE EYES Given the ethical issues surrounding feeding common reeds to people during taste tours in Verdun , I wondered how else the intimacy of tasting could be imparted . The waterfront park and its pedestrian paths were constructed to enable panoramic views . For more on the ethics of foraging and dumpster diving see . NATALIE 167

featuring the Lawrence River . Condo developments on Nuns Island , which is part of the borough , are likewise designed for encompassing views . This desire to take it all from a what philosopher Michel de called a God eye view , which he contrasts with the intimate connection with the city experienced through walking in densely developed streets . De describes walkers as artists , who create poetry in the ways that they move through space . They make use of spaces that can not be seen their knowledge of them is as blind as that of lovers in each others arms . The paths that correspond in this intertwining , unrecognized poems in which each body is an ment signed by many others , elude legibility . It is as though the practices organizing a bustling city were characterized by their Unlike the eye that the totality of the city at a distance , walkers experience places only in , but close up and sensually . Is it true that landscape as a comprehensive vision is with intimacy ?

Current research in the field of virtual ity ( is aiming to prove that panoramic experiences , even as mediated through a headset , can produce sensations of ence , and illusions of embodiment . In other words , these media can produce a felt sense of being there , embodied in a place . Some artists and researchers are trying to develop techniques for ing in simulated environments to enhance the sense of This is a question that I have been exploring in recent work . I have been creating stories about the ships between humans , plants , and animals along the waterfront in Verdun . These stories are based on interviews and fieldwork there . The videos are accessible from an online map , and I have also been screening them during live tours through the park ( see Figure ) De 1984 , See for an example . 168 TOUCHING FOOD , VIRTUALLY TASTING

Figure Waterfront tour Edible Environments graduate course . July 12 , 2019 . photo author ) FROM THE SAFETY OF A HEADSET If video can , as philosopher Laura Marks argues , create a tactile , or haptic visuality , extending the sense of touch through vision , can the same be true for taste ?

Food scholars Allison and Jessica argue that food is never ingested by itself , and that taste is rather a biosocial process . If this is true , then visuality can be a significant factor in consuming foods and . 2010 . NATALIE 169 Figure Screenshot from , in Coney Island 2022 Natalie . image author ) The videos in Coney Island offer immersive views of the river ecology in Verdun . Each of the videos in the series adopts the point of view of a different animal , plant , or insect . In one video , the viewer is hovering in a milkweed patch , experiencing the environment from the position of a monarch ( see Figure ) Another video plunges the viewer underwater , offering the viewpoint of a fish ( see Figure ) These human perspectives have the effect of destabilizing human and habitual ways of experiencing the world . In this era of climate catastrophe , it is crucial that we develop new ways of perceiving and imagining this shared world . 170 TOUCHING FOOD , VIRTUALLY TASTING

Figure Screenshot from Wharf , in Coney Island 2022 Natalie . image author ) Discussion Questions What do municipal restrictions on eating plants that grow in the waterfront park suggest about relations and responsibilities in this place ?

What are some of the advantages of developing sensory perception of the environment ( for instance , through taste ) and in what stances is it more important to maintain distance from plants , animals , and insects that may be tempting to eat ?

What are some examples of technologies that allow us to touch and to taste otherwise parts of the world ?

What are the and pitfalls of these tools ?

NATALIE 171 Go outside and find a nearby plant . Create a work ( photograph , drawing , video , poem , prose , etc . that communicates the way ( in which that plant nourishes the world . References Barnard , 2020 ) From dumpster dives to disco vibes The shifting shape of food waste In Reynolds , Soma , Spring ( book Waste . New York . Davis , 2015 . Art in the among aesthetics , politics , environments and . don Open Humanities Press . De , 1984 . The Practice Life . of California Press . De , 1998 . The Practice of day Life Volume Living Cooking . Trans . University of Minnesota Press . Kramer , and , 2015 . Eating Introduction . The Center for Genomic Gastronomy . 2010 . Visceral difference Variations in feeling ( Slow ) Environment and Planning A Economy and Space 42 ( 12 ) 172 TOUCHING FOOD , VIRTUALLY TASTING

, Harriet . 2014 . How Wild is Wild ?

Perspectives , The Edges of Environmental History Honouring jane Carruthers . Spencer , 2016 ) Miriam . esse arts opinions 87 . Tsing , 2015 . The Mushroom at the End of the World On the of Life in Capitalist Ruins . Princeton University Press . NATALIE 173