Forms of Love to convey
Greek has four distinct words for love originating from Ancient Greek:
- agape (brotherly love, currently in modern Greek all other definitions like the term love in English),
- éros (passionate love, with sensual desire and longing),
- philía (dispassionate virtuous love, empathy, currently friendship in modern Greek), and
- storgē (affection, currently more understood as compassion)
Much like in Greek in most languages the terminology differs depending on the kind of love conveyed. Certain languages use often one word for different meanings like in French where “aimer” is suitable for love, friendship, liking something. As in French, “aimer” can apply to a dish, Spanish “gustar” literally means “is pleasing to” with a connotation towards taste or desire in different circumstances. It is the possessive term "te" (you) in French and Spanish that implies strong affection and personal attachment.
I would purposely avoid forms/variations of love which we may accommodate by interest, greed, bondage or other forms of imbalance in our daily lives. I would like to focus on background visuals that are suitable to all, including children, and which are widely replicable and transposable.
Visuals: background, foreground and interaction
The foreground would show images of guests as they come in. It would be designed so an iPhone can photograph a guest and “push it” into the foreground for a given diner night.
I’m currently looking into foreground and background interactions, with help from WallMuse programmers, so such parameters can be transposed to one or multiple screens/projections.
The possibility of guests being photographed or using their FaceBook image would form an interactive layer with different movements, to be determined, upon the background layer composed of the different love visuals (attraction, friendship, family and compassion).
The possibility to add photos from FaceBook could also permit a wider variety of usages, help make this more popular also using such social media networks. We could highlight the playful, interactive side to the project that would also link to recipes and further information around Love Food.
Visuals declinations
I would represent éros as attraction, as two people turning to look at each other, or rather one person looking back, and the guest foreground would be the other. I would film these with volunteers in Athens, people of different gender, ages, origins, socio economic situations. The final result would be much like the following:
I would represent friendship as nice moments talking together. Here the background could be the food of Feeder and art of the Breeder gallery, where the foreground would be guests among themselves.
I would treat the concept of family as care of the young and elders, and hence with an ageing population in Europe focus more on the later.
I would visualise the form of love including compassion as supporting those in need or helping to respect nature. I would focus on education, a subject I worked as a volunteer, with film around literacy classes, vocational courses to migrants as well as out door nature activities with mainstream schools. Again photos of guests would intermingle with the background.
Food declinations
Food would be part of this in its purest form i.e. raw, thus being closer to nature. Through a network of natural food nutritionists and health therapists, the recipes will have health uplifting qualities, helping us towards well being, away for un-ease (disease). They would include grapefruit seed extracts, seaweed, radish, artichoke, carrots, nuts, various herbs, honey and other ingredients that are well known for their positive impact to our well being.
Such ingredients and mixes would also serve as a form of self love, and the idea of doing something ‘good’ for one’s own mind and body.
The public are welcome to participate. The proposed recipes should be treated as examples, that others and the public can adapt, transpose. To further understand how this would work, let’s take an example of someone who loves to eat “steak and vegetables”, a common tradition in many Western cultures. To transpose this to raw food, I would reproduce a steak with grounded nuts, herbs, and honey to reproduce a mixed substance. Maple syrup, when mixed with a little of natural baking powder (non chemical), apparently kills cancer cells. This is because the cells absorb the sugar and as baking powder within, the baking powder kills the cancer cells. So I would create a kind of “steak” with local honey instead of maple syrup and seek out a right balance for consistency and taste.
A salad would match this “steak”, and a creative dressing would add to the exciting taste. Fruit, herbal juices and other aromatic elements would be used to acquire a balanced taste.
Preparation and planning
A couple of months would be required for preparing the visuals, and two additional weeks to research the local ingredients. Finally, a couple of sessions with the Chef or a chef team to adapt the recipes.
I would like to share the work in progress with a gallery or restaurant so as to gain feedback and orientation, to make this appropriate to their clientele.
