THE ARCHEOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURE AND FOOD
A research installation and timeline for the 2022 Tallinn Architecture Biennale
The archeology of architecture and food systems throughout the twentieth century explores the broader network of human, non-human, biotic and abiotic factors that are implicated in processes of production, consumption, and decomposition. Writing a minor history of architecture through the lens of metabolism requires a categorization that responds to two conceptual forces, seemingly irreconcilable when thinking of built form. On the one hand, the architecture included in this archaeology is growing, consuming, producing energy, or rotting, thus placing it in a timeline of metabolic relationships on a material level. On the other hand, the selected spatial projects are entangled with complex social, environmental, and political forces that inform their materiality over time. In a series of categories for conceptual and digestive processes -- Cultivating Consumption, Performing Ingestion, Territorializing Provision, Codifying Preparation, Systematizing Digestion, and Regulating Decomposition -- we encourage viewers to read these projects in constellations of material and political interrelationships. While the organization of the installation acknowledges the chronological order, the various categories allow for new, non-linear readings to emerge, prompting dialogue and cross-fertilization between otherwise disparate projects.
