Toxic Food

2015 - Dessau, Germany

Chemicals and radiation influence our nutrition and thus our bodies. The substances are added intentionally for technological or health-related purposes (e.g. food additives), or end up in our food uncontrolled through environmental pollution of the air, water and soil. Some consequences of this large (bio-)chemical experiment are already obvious, other repercussions remain yet unforeseen.

Instead of using design to create solutions for this worldwide threatening health hazards, I used design to reexamine and analyze the present state of affairs, I applied design to explore, question and challenge our assumptions and preconceptions and I started a critical discussion about possible futures.

The outcomes were speculative products that foster critical reflection and discussion around the given topic of (bio-) chemically manipulated food.

What if we eat waste?

What is exactly the expiry date for food? This is the question I decided to deal with. After all reading and collecting information for my ‘Critical Design’ project, I reconsidered my first question and now ask: what if we eat waste? I can imagine a future where we all will encounter problems to prepare food and the way of preparing and consuming is different. What if we will have to use an extra artificial belly to digest part of food we do not like or ones that cannot be consumed directly from our mouths? What if we have a hole in our stomach to put these waste food and digest it? I decided to put these imaginations into designing a T-shirt. My simple prototype shows a small hole in the T-shirt with a connection to the belly. The hole is easily reachable to put and digest all your food waste.