Live comedy, mushroom-growing and insect-eating

The second phase of FED UP: The Future of Food explored sustainability, sensory experience, and perception. Building on the successful House of Ferment, produced in collaboration with Grizedale Arts and Borough Market (presented in July 2015), a series of events and activities took place across Guy’s and Strand Campuses in November 2015 engaging King’s students, staff and the public in conversations about food. Through demonstrations and participation the season invited audiences to re-examine their current approach to food and to consider potential alternatives to food production and consumption in the future.

Edible Pollution, an installation outside Guy’s Campus, fostered curiosity while highlighting issues around sustainability and the environment. Demonstrating how individuals can cultivate their own edible mushrooms using recycled coffee grounds, biodegradable bags and mushroom spawn, the wall based presentation illustrated a ‘do-it-yourself’ approach in a city with limited space. At Strand and Guy’s campuses Flavour SenseNation, an interactive travelling exhibition, illustrated the difference between flavour and taste while demonstrating how our five senses play a crucial role in our experience of food.  King's College PhD student Alexandra Sexton led a workshop on perceptions of food, illuminating the cultural and political dynamics bound up in our attitudes and choices. A comedy night in association with Science Showoff used satire to highlight some serious points about the past, present and future of food. And in collaboration with Explore King’s, Science Gallery London hosted workshops with over two-hundred students currently studying GCSEs or A Levels, engaging young minds in ideas about food consumption, cultivation and production in the future.

All these activities showcased ways individuals and groups are addressing the issues surrounding the future of food.  The activities surprised and challenged our audiences, inviting them to reflect on our environment, our levels of consumption, our detachment from methods of production, and our role as consumers of today and tomorrow.

March 17, 2016