‘Eat shit’ is an exhibition from the Design Academy of Eindhoven’s new ‘Food Non Food Department’ in this years Milan Design week, tackling as Thomas Widdershoven the creative director of Design Academy Eindhoven describes an “…explosive, but … entirely appropriate..” (Design Academy Eindhoven 2015) topic. Just beyond the entrance into the exhibition space is an alfresco dinning area that embraces the exhibitions theme ‘Eat shit’. In contrast to furniture fairs fast-food, here you could buy your own pile of handmade ‘shit’, as seen in fig. 2

Far from tasting like the exhibitions name, the dish challenges the visitors perception of food, and the form it takes. Taking influence from the ‘Slow Food’ movement which originated in Italy in the year 2000, (Petrini, C. & ebrary, I. 2003). ‘Eat shit’ asks designer to tackle an ever relevant question; of how to feed a world in an every increasing world population. An exhibit piece that questions the very source of our food supply is ‘Bugs Bunny’ by Caroline Schulze. Schulze explores the use of insects as a superior food supply per weight, in comparison to agricultural meat.

As food now digests through your body, you now visit the second component of the exhibition space; ‘Shit’ and ‘waste’. Recent graduate of the design academy, partaking in the ‘Eat Shit’ exhibition was Pim Van Baarsen, who explored the ‘waste’ that we produce. Van Baarsen, as a social designer and a cofounder of ‘Super local’, tackles social and cultural ideas in “90% of the world population that doesn’t have the financial capacity for traditional design” (Baarsen, P.V. 2015).

Van Baarsen’s project ‘Holy Crap’ is focused in the city of Kathmandu, Nepal, were currently “only a fraction of recyclables is recycled” (Super Local 2015).

The Holy Crap system “… encourages households to separate their waste… and for every well separated bag; the household earns credits… diverting 60% of waste from landfills.” (Super Local 2015).  To use the system, a household has to separate their waste into three colour and picture coded bags; one for organics, one for plastics and one for the rest (Fig.4). The basis of the bags is the ease of separation into their respective recyclables stream. The system endeavours to clean up the environment and capture valuable waste materials, while rewarding it users.

I would be interested to see the results from the trails of this waste system. Will the incentives entice locals rooted in the past to forge into a cleaner future?

Bibliography

Baarsen, P.V. 2015, Pim Van Baarsen, Pim van baarsen, Netherlands, viewed April 28 2015, <http://pimvanbaarsen.com>.

Design Academy Eindhoven 2015, Eat Shit (exhibition brochure), Eindhoven, Netherlands, viewed April 18 2015, .

Petrini, C. & ebrary, I. 2003, Slow food, Columbia University Press, New York.

Super Local 2015, Super Local, Holy Crap, viewed April 28 2015, <http://www.super-local.com/?p=71>.