Hacking Food Systems
Date: 11 December 2022
Location: Stadslab Eindhoven – Gasfabriek 6 (NRE)
Register alone or with a team on Eventbrite: here
A collaboration between Hyperburgers, the project of social designer Francesca Tambussi, and MAD Emergent Art Center, this food-themed hackathon invites creatives, designers, makers, thinkers to come to wants to bring together the creatives of Eindhoven for a day around the many possibilities around food as an urban commons.
Kickoff Scenario
Imagine a near future food-hub in the center of Eindhoven where once crossed the entrance door you’re not an individual customer anymore but a fellow maker, citizen, and researcher. In which area or department of this new space would you invest your hard and soft skills so that it slowly becomes a beloved place of collective care?
Would you start the rooftop green- house? Would it be connected with that odd aquaponic system I peaked outside? Is that biowaste fuel? Ohh look at such curious food shelves. Ah! There’s a dishwasher using infra-reds and coffee ground! That room looks like a small parliament.. for decision making processes and glocal politics. Wow, that was inspiring and a bit intense, I’m hungry now.. Let me go and see the open kitchen, where a team made lunch with ancient seeds and leftovers, right, and the greens from the roof… Hey, that was delicious, thank you, here’s my donation. Uh, you also have your currency? it’s crypto but physical too, and made with heat-pressed plastic food packaging. Mmh true, If there’s one thing we will never toss away, it is money…
Program
11:00 Coffeeee
11:15 Introductions
11:30 Start hacking!
18:00 Stop hacking! You must have your prototypes and presentations ready by now
18:15 Each team presents and pitches their ideas to the jury
18:45 The jury retreats to decide the winner
19:00 Prize and winners
19:15 Free dinner and drinks for all participants, friends and freeloaders
Registration
Participation is free of charges. Whether you come alone or with a team, each participant gets a personal ticket via eventbrite here.
FAQ
What’s a hackaton?
Hackatons are social events that usually extend to 1 or 2 days, which challenge small teams of participants to compete in a design sprint. The outcome can include a concept, a digital and/or physical prototype, and frontal presentation of the idea.
The term hackaton comes from the 2 words hacking and marathon. Hence, it is a marathon for hackers. The term “hacker” usually describes coders who break into informatic systems, but in a broader sense this term can refer to any creative, maker, artist, designer, thinker who “enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming the limitations of systems”.
What’s a fookaton?
A fookaton is a food-themed hackaton of course!
Is this a cooking contest?
No! You will be hosted in a makers’ space, not a kichen! The event is in the style of traditional hackatons, so you can present concepts and ideas in the form of digital presentations and physical mockups. Organic material can but doesn’t have to be part of your prototype.
What is expected of me / my team?
You are expected to show up at 11 am, and when your team is ready, sit together around a table to start brainstorming, or check in if you guys did already come with a plan. At some point (maybe 12.30?), you should decide what kind of project you want to do. After lunchtime, it’s probably time to start executing. Who’s good with coding? Who is great in presenting? Who has good manual skills? Devide the tasks and bring your idea into the world, with any tool, prop, strategy you see fit. At 5 pm, you might want to do a group check in for the last hour sprint. At 6, you all stop designing, and your spokesperson should be ready to present.
Who wins and what?
The team that will present the idea that mostly includes
- A system hack
- Food as an urban Commons
- Glocal scale
- Combining digital prototyping/ presentation with physical mockup
will win 250€ in cash.
What kind of projects are expected?
The kick-off scenario wants to give a broad context, but a few elements in the story are clear:
- the idea should be applicable to (but not necessarily limited to) the context of Eindhoven;
- the idea is invited to question the wild commercial speculation around food, and to get busy with the notion of the Commons;
- the idea is invited to bring value / a service to the broad collectivity of the city, not (only) to benefit a small group;
- The idea is invited to not only think in a close-up manner (eg. a recipe) but to think of the broad, glocal systems that are implicated in the real-world landing of that idea/concept/product.
Make a menu with all the foraging edibles around Eindhoven. Or a micro-supply chain that taps on your housemates waste and food habits. Maybe you want to present a system to boil an egg in the sun: it is appreciated if you keep it complex: where do the eggs come from? Do you know the chickens? Which sun, my backyard sun?
Think glocal: think about Eindhoven, without forgetting the global impact of food. Think about how to engage with consumers.
Hosts
Francesca Tambussi, Hyperburgers
Francesca (they/them) is a social designer based in Eindhoven. Born and raised in Torino, Italy (the city/region of FIAT, Slow Food, Arduino, Lavazza, Martini…) from a north+south family with ties in trading, farming, white and blue collar wage work. Francesca worked in the European communication industry as graphic designer /art director / copy writer for 10 years before landing in Design Academy Eindhoven. Her design research, pursued in the framework of her project Hyperbugers, focuses on finding ways to exit the supermarket, together.
René Paré, Director of Mad emergent art center
MAD emergent art center was founded by a group of artists in 1995, after a breakthrough in media and communication technology created the urgency to connect the artistic and the engineering world. As a facilitator and distributor of new art, the MAD emergent art center acts as a laboratory and a platform. We maximise our interactions by targeting a wide range of groups at regional, national and international levels. Artists, developers, designers, scientists, technologists, public organisations, educational institutions, government departments and private companies are part of our collaborator’s network. As an artists’ initiative, MAD has developed into an active organisation of enthusiastic professionals. Every member uses their chosen speciality to further the connection between art, science and technology. Through mutual learning and imagination, we believe in making the future together.
Mindhoven
A broad networking and educational program by MadLab, Mindhoven is a dynamic platform that strengthens the social ecosystem of Eindhoven by making multidisciplinary connections and initiating developments. The conversion of challenges facing the world today provides direction and opportunities for serious creative solutions. By looking beyond the boundaries of sectors and domains, Mindhoven offers perspectives to the future.