What is the value of an animal’s life? Adelaide Tam won the Future Food Design Award of 2018 asking this question with her design project ‘0.9 Grams of Brass‘. She transforms the stun gun bullet cartridge which kills the life of one cow, into a paperclip, sold for just 5 cents.
Both the bullet case and the paperclip weigh exactly 0.9 grams. You can buy one of these brass paperclips from a vending machine for 5 cents, the same price as the original bullet. Through this transformation, the paperclip becomes a tool to re-evaluate the value of a life in the meat industry, which is currently well hidden behind closed doors.
‘0.9 Grams of Brass tells the complicated story through an, at first sight banal, everyday object. This bronze paperclip differs subtly from the average metal paperclip. It seems to fulfil two goals; either to criticize and / or to commemorate the life of a cow,‘ jury member Clemens Driesen says.
Future Food Design Award
For the annual Future Food Design Awards, an initiative of the Dutch Institute of Food Design (DIFD) and Agri meets Design, winning designs are sought out which challenge topics from food culture to the food chain. The DIFD creates a global platform for designers working with food and eating. Exploring how food is created and what, why and how people eat.
The award is an international incentive prize to put innovative and disruptive designs for a sustainable food future in the spotlight. This year, out of 50 entries from 30 countries, they selected 3 finalists, where Tam won the jury as well as the public choice award, worth 5,000 and 2,500 euros.
Atoms by Alexandra Genis
Finalist: Atoma
Pure molecules as a food spice is the creation of food designer Alexandra Genis. Atoma is a collection of spices which create flavour using nothing else but pure molecules, inspiring consumers to combine, explore and experiment with new and different flavouring combinations. The food industry operates with more than 2,000 molecules, manufacturing the flavour profiles of everyday edible products. Those so called ‘volatile compounds’ are found in all natural foods but can also be recreated in the lab. Atoma takes these industrial molecules and adapts them as a product for easy use in the domestic kitchen.
The Tiger Penis Project by Kuang-Yi
Finalist: The Tiger Penis Project
The Tiger Penis Project by Kuang-Yi aims to resolve the conflict between health, culture and environmental conservation through a new interpretation of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The effectiveness of alternative medicine cannot always be proven according to contemporary scientific analysis yet may offer other benefits beyond mainstream western medicine. Such as the tiger penis to increase virility in TCM. This project proposes the use of emerging biotechnologies to create artificial animal parts for Chinese medicine. Keeping both the environment and cultural heritage intact.