Farm Shelf Table Trash

Where did your last meal come from? A drive-thru? A vending machine? Maybe you made it in your kitchen, but where did your food really come from? Was it grown on a farm? A local community garden? Was it delivered to the store by train, plane, or truck? We frequently fail to consider the underlying mechanisms inherent in food production, distribution, and consumption, as well as their environmental implications. Approaching food without considering these factors invokes an anthropocentric view of the natural world by ignoring the complicated, mostly invisible processes involving how food becomes the food we eat. All of the resources, human capital, and machines used to bring food from the earth to your plate are elements of a foodscape. Foodscape is a term we utilize to help analyze our perception of food and the assumptions we make regarding its production, distribution, and consumption. By breaking this exhibit into categories that encompass these three complex stages, we are able to discuss different phases of the foodscape as a means to better understand the world around us. This deepens our understanding of each moment in the timeline of our food as it moves through the foodscape. It’s easy to forget that food comes from somewhere when it appears in abundance in our stores, cafeterias, and homes. This exhibit attempts to bring these elements of the foodscape back to the forefront through sound and challenges us to rethink a common aspect of everyday life, food.