João Pedro Soares reviews the film Sweet Bean, by Naomi Kawase.

Contributor João Pedro Soares reflects on recent guest lecturer Dr. masharu’s talk on Edible Soil, considering the various properties, flavours and health benefits - going on a self-led soil tasting experience himself! Through it, João Pedro reflects on this practice and its wider possibilities for our connection to the Earth.

Windmovesmountain reflects on the mushroom eating practices in their Asian upbringing, their commodification and capitalisation in the western world - and their search for meaning and identity through their art practice.

João Pedro Soares reflects on Michael Marder’s lecture for our Food & Art Alternative MA 24/25 and considers the role of food in the connections between nature and culture.

The first in the series ‘Promiscuity with Matter’, this essay follows Denise di Summa’s investigation of bread-making as an embodied, ecological and situated practice of becoming.

In this essay, Jennie Moran expands on the possibilities - or, rather, duties? - of care within institutions, through the lens of hospitality and a gifted cup of tea. Might a site for sustenance (namely, in institutions) become the perfect setting for human resistance? What are the roles of guest and host, and how might they relate to one another?

The essay discusses the enduring importance of olives in the Levant, focusing on the impact of state violence and the Israeli border wall on Palestinian access to land, highlighting initiatives like The Palestinian Heirloom Seed Library and Sacred Cuisine as forms of resistance.

Drawing from a recent lecture by artist Gabriel Alonso, 23/24 Alternative MA participant Ines Barracha proposes a humble imaginary exercise, in which she pictures an orange tree as a fictional speculation of a future which is more sensitive to what Gabriel calls the “humanity of plants”.

Our editor in chief Barney Pau interviews founder of MOLD magazine LinYee Yuan. LinYee Yuan redefines food media by examining the future of food beyond taste.

Dora Tarasidou takes a look at artist Asunción Molinos Gordo’s project Campesino a Campesino, reflecting on the impacts of farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing, mutual aid and decentralised food practices.

It’s early 2020, and a virus moves stealthily and indifferently across biological, social and media thresholds, seeping in like an amorphous fog. Suddenly and overnight, life comes to a standstill and passing time becomes acutely pronounced; decelerated.

As the summer draws to a close, our new Editor-in-Chief introduces the brand new Alternative MA in Food&Art at The Gramounce

In this Journal article, we will take a slightly different approach to our previous posts. Instead of focusing on the messages we communicate, we will take a look into their mediums of communication. The inspiration behind this comes from Food Cosmogonies graduate Elvia Vasconcelos, whose practice in sketchnoting reconstitutes the ways we understand academia.

In general, we humans can be decidedly anthropocentric. Historically, many of our religions have told us that the world is ours to use. Prevailing cultural narratives have tended to align with this extractivist idea; and concurrent capitalism continues to engender this maximal outlook, regardless of impact. And impactful has this outlook been. So much so, that it has been suggested that our current time be renamed, from the Holocene, to the Anthropocene.

“The Walter White of Fermentation”, Dr. Johnny Drain begins his Gramounce Expeditions seminar by posing the question: “What is food?” Though his query might seem simple, its brevity belies its complexity.

Gender is a form of classification. It is etymologically rooted in the Latin genus: meaning ‘birth, race, or stock;’ a term which also denotes taxonomic genera. As its etymology suggests, gender is a human construct used to delineate between beings by their biological anatomy. ‘Gender’ and ‘sex’ are often used interchangeably, though the latter more often refers to biological differences; whereas the former covers social and cultural differences, encompassing more than the binaries of ‘male,’ and ‘female.

Notionally; socially; ecological: ferments distil and incite; are radical and rebellious. They engender multispecies thinking; and inspire interspecies collaboration. ‘Ferment’ is rooted in the Latin fervere: ‘to boil.’ This can be seen physically, in the bubbles which our ferments release; just as it can be understood notionally. A ferment is a manifestation of change; of creating new forms from existing ones. As such, fermentation is a potent metaphor for how we might manifest ourselves.

From maddening fungi to patriarchal powers; and LSD to reproductive politics: the focuses of Diana Policarpo’s practice may at first glance seem decidedly disparate. Yet, just as fungi create complicated hyphal networks to metabolise their resources; she weaves her speculative transdisciplinary research into an intricate web of meaning: revealing her themes to be integrally entangled.

Through Justin Wong’s practice, the most complex of subject-matter becomes metabolised into digestible forms. From ingestion to abjection, his mind leaps between disparate topics so adeptly that, were it not for his diligent guidance, we’d be semantically adrift.

The Christian church has begrudged women ever since Eve first partook of the forbidden fruit. Despite—or perhaps due to—having enlightened humanity, women were henceforth subjected to the whims of patriarchy. Though this misogyny is not unique to the Abrahamic traditions, it is exemplified by the witch-hunts that wracked Mediaeval and Early Modern Europe. During this period, half of Europe’s population found its existence demonised in a practice of hate that still affects us today.