How will the futures of food look like?
Future Food Stories is an exhibition in collaboration with Kew Gardens that revolves around the futures of food. Which kind of ingredients will we be eating in 2050? Will our current food system change over the years? How is climate crisis going to impact the foods we’ve always taken for granted? Can indigenous and traditional knowledge help us solve some of the problems that we are currently facing? What are the latest technological innovations in the food sector?
In collaboration with Kew Gardens
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew is a world-leading scientific organisation, showcasing the largest living collection of plants and fungi. Not only they are one of the most beautiful and inspiring places in London, but it is also known for its invaluable work in research and education.
In collaboration with them, and as part of their Food Forever summer programe, we were able to learn and share some of their findings and how they can influence the future of our food systems.
After a visit to meet with some of their best scientists and bombard them with questions, we learnt about bananas, enset or lablab, among others. These first hand conversations were invaluable for us to later come up with the project.
'RBG Kew is one of the world’s leading botanic
gardens for scientific research and education.'
The challenge
How the futures of food will look like? What a simple and at the same time complex question to ask. There are so many angles from which this “simple” question could be tackled. And, as many perspectives as there may be, they are all intertwined and dependent on each other. How to make such an intricate topic approachable for everyone?
Stories! Who doesn’t like a good story? For this exhibition we broke this big, intimidating topic into bite sized pieces, little stories if you will, meant to be both enlightening and easy to digest. From indigenous knowledge to scientific innovations, there is something for everyone. And together they offer a wider, more diverse picture of the future of our plates.
The sections
These stories are grouped into different categories that materialize into physical sections within the exhibition. Visitors can navigate through them freely and learn about the value of diversity, science and technology in the food sector, the protein shift and the raise of plant based diets, indigenous and traditional knowledge, foods at risk of disappearing (plus already extinct ones) and how to prevent that from happening.
Each section was assigned a color for visitors to navigate the space easier, while at the same time offering a more colorful and playful approach to the future.
'Each section represents a different
perspective on our food and its future'
Collective futuring
We truly believe that making people participant of the exhibition is one of the most powerful ways of leaving an impression on them. This way, the visitors are not passive observants anymore, but and active part of the exhibition in which they are encouraged to share their own vision of the future.
Through a series of different voting totems scattered throughout the space, we present the audience with multiple questions on the futures of food for them to reflect, chat and ultimately, feel empowered to have a say in the future too.
'The visitor is not a passive observant anymore,
but and active part of the exhibition.'
Behind the scenes: the process
Creating Future Food Stories has been one of our biggest challenges as a studio, and we are incredibly proud of the result and the positive feedback of the visitors. From the initial research and talks with Kew, to the whole creation of the graphic design for the exhibition, while coordinating with builders, model makers, Kew and other agents involved in the process. Not only we were the the graphic designers of the exhibition, but also the copy writers, exhibition designers and coordinators. The last month of the process also included a complete hands on journey that included the build up and styling of over 50 food items, with the addition of other elements such as the construction of a city model, a spirulina tank and even a seed bank.
A big thank you!
We wanted to thank the people from Kew Gardens for the opportunity and hard work, especially to Kate, Tilly and Paul.
We also wanted to appreciate the work of Standard8, the team behind the furniture design and displays of the exhibition, as well as JuicyFruits, for creating some of the replicas we used through the whole exhibition. Big thank you to everyone involved in the project and every single visitor who voted, passed by and shared their thoughts with us both on site and online. Thank you!
