Kitchen Lab Tichá pošta / Broken Telephone
Kitchen Lab Tichá pošta / Broken Telephone
Kitchen Lab Tichá pošta / Broken Telephone workshop brings together kitchen lab practices and experiments in remote co-performance of recipes to celebrate diversity and errors following a recipe more or less. Maybe the outcomes of our remote recipe making-do won’t be the same shape. Maybe something else will go wrong in the transmission.
Pictures: Global Hackteria Network
This workshop/performative participatory lecture aims to bring kitchen lab practices and experiments in sharing maker-recipe practices to an online festival context. Mainstream TV, Cable and online/Video-sharing platforms have a long history of chefs and cooks sharing recipes in a ‘copy me, the way I do’ style, with the anticipation that the viewer will follow the script and copy the recipe process. This will do something else. Like the Tichá pošta / Broken Telephone game [Note: It is also known in British English as Chinese Whispers although this term has racist heritage].
Let’s say, for example, it starts with the recipe-sharing chef proposing and making something for the very first time from a recipe they found in advance. We will make a staple coffee snack in Finland, which has an interesting biography to explore. What's that you say about your ears?
This author has enjoyed this snack in the past, but nowadays rarely, certainly is no expert baker. A quick recipe search online says it takes 2hrs 15mins to prepare & 10mins to bake. I am sure it is possible to slice 25mins off the process. The Tichá pošta / Broken Telephone part of the process is that most likely I am not going to use dairy products, maybe it will be vegan. Furthermore due to COVID-19 Shutdown conditions, physical distancing or restrictions in shopping routines, maybe it is best to do with what you have already in the cupboards or fridge. Those on the other side of the process as remote participants will more than likely enact the recipe according to the original dairy recipe. Or swap the egg for some other glaze, wish to add pistachio for example, or do something else than what is in the recipe. Or maybe they won’t be the same shape. Or maybe something else will go wrong in the transmission.
Unlike a recipe broadcast or video stream or download, there is a chance for real-time audio-visual dialogue, related conversation, awareness of recipe forks, bifurcations from recipe, or other variations off-script. Time allowing, no mishaps included, there is also the chance to compare the outcomes of the shared process, celebrate experiments or errors along the way.
Requirements for participants
Zoom.us application for video streaming with free account
Please check your Zoom setting before the event starts - https://zoom.us/test
Andrew Gryf Paterson
Andrew Gryf Paterson, is an 'Artist-organiser', cultural producer, educator and independent researcher. Paterson specialises in developing and leading inter- and trans-disciplinary projects exploring connections between art, digital culture and science, cultural activism, ecological and sustainability movements, cultural heritage and collaborative networks. Originally from Scotland, Andrew has been most active in the past decade in Helsinki, Finland, as well as Latvia and the Baltic Sea region, in particular. He works across the fields of media/ network/ environmental arts and activism, pursuing a participatory practice through workshops, performative events & storytelling.