News

Call for Papers: Special issue for the International Journal of Food Design
Thursday, December 13, 2018

Call for Papers: Special issue for the International Journal of Food Design

Call for Papers: International Journal of Food Design

Special Issue: Materiality between food and design

Full paper due: 1 June 2019

The full call can be found here >> https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=246/view,page=2/

Call for papers

The cross-pollination between the worlds of food and design started when eating transformed from a purely biological necessity into a cultural phenomenon. In addition, innovation in the field of food may have a significant impact on social behaviour. The contribution of design to the food realm is multifaceted and goes from the material dimension to the most immaterial one. Design and food interact on several overlapping layers: material (product), immaterial (culture, experience, sensory) but also prospective (thought, speculation). In design circles, food has emerged as an inspiring area of exploration.

One of the most prominent manifestations of designers’ new fascination with food is the way designers now consider foodstuffs as a material to shape along the project process. Food can be transformed into matter capable of allowing different and exciting relationships between human and artefact. Not only on the aesthetic level, but also facilitating new behaviors linked for example to waste reduction.

Like wood, metals and plastics, food is something designers can explore in the workshop, and experiment with modelling its properties and qualities. This contemporary approach to matters is changing the fundamental rules of their development, and today almost everything can be considered a raw material from which to generate new experiences. This tendency towards experimentation and tinkering has also incorporated the food that numerous designers consider an appealing area to investigate the material world.

This special issue wants to focus on the world of food in its relationship with the design of materials, inquiring both the role of materials in shaping the experience of food and vice versa, the food potential in generating meaningful material experiences.

To give just a few examples of questions that we would like to address: Could food sources be introduced to the vast world of production materials? Is it possible for designers to consider the idea of the edible materials as a viable cultural model for the reduction of waste?

Considering food as a raw material, can it lead to new solutions and the development of alternative and more sustainable materials? Could we take into consideration the food aesthetic as a creative element to design materials? How could it influence the languages and aesthetics of the materials we are used to? How should designers deal with the relationship with new and traditional technologies to transform food into materials (3d printing, growing, low tech forming processes, and so on)? How have materials influenced the culture of food (preparation, conservation, fruition) and how have they affected and modified people's behaviour? Could we consider materials as facilitators and tool makers (metal and silicone, for example) for cooking and preparing food? Can materials participate in the staging of food and how? How do the food and the object’s materiality interact in different cultures (in the past, present, and future)?

We welcome both empirical work and theoretically-informed design case studies since both are needed to creatively tackle the above and many other questions in this field, especially those that address the issue from a cultural and speculative perspective.

Suggested Research Themes:

Possible research themes in the domain of food and materials for design include, but are not limited to:
  • Food as material and material as food (edible materials)
  • Circular economies and food waste exploitation
  • Growing materials in the domain of food design
  • DIY-Materials from food waste
  • Cultural reflections and speculative thinking
  • New technologies in preparation and presentation, as 3D printing and augmented reality
Journal background

The International Journal of Food Design (IJFD) is the first academic journal entirely dedicated to Food Design research and practice. We aim at creating a platform for researchers operating in the various disciplines that contribute to the understanding of Food Design: Design applied to food and eating, or food and eating investigated from a Design perspective. See https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=246/view,page=2/

Schedule:
  • Call for papers: December 2018
  • Submission of full papers: 1 June 2019
  • Notification of acceptance: 1 September 2019
  • Final version of paper due: 1 October 2019
  • Expected publication date: 1 February 2020
Submission of papers:

A double-blind review process will be used for this special issue.

Please check the Notes for Contributors on https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/IJFD/2018%20NfC%20IJFD_3_1.pdf

You can send your contribution to this Special Issue directly to one of the guest editors:

dr. Valentina Rognoli
Politecnico di Milano, design department, Italy
valentina.rognoli@polimi.it

dr. Manuela Celi
Politecnico di Milano, design department,