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23-31 October 2027

Food Untold vol.2 - Food Observing

What do we know about food when it's not written down, but lived, sensed, or quietly assumed?

Hosted by To Be Cooked

This project is now archived and was part of DDW25

Event type

Exhibition

During DDW25, To Be Cooked hosts a participatory food stand where visitors share personal, sensory observations of a different ingredient each day. Using playful analog tools, we collect and display responses as a growing, real-time public archive.

Individual Sensation - how do you observe your food?

Food Untold vol.2 – Food Observing explores how food shapes our senses, memories, and social imagination in ways that often go unspoken. At its core, it poses a simple question: how can we intuitively describe, imagine, or relate to food that is too personal, too subtle, or too ordinary to be recorded? The project invites all individuals to observe and respond to familiar ingredients—not through analysis, but through memory, feeling, and imagination.

Living Archive - how do we build patterns, contradictions, and overlaps?

The food stand becomes a live research station — an evolving installation where public input accumulates across nine days. Through our methodology, which draws on multiple social, cultural, and artistic perspectives, the project proposes a playful, open-ended way of documenting lived experience. We are particularly interested in subtle, raw, or emotional observations, the kind of knowledge that often escapes academic or scientific framing. By creating space for these insights, the project repositions food as both a personal and cultural archive.

About To Be Cooked

To Be Cooked is a culinary collective based in Eindhoven that focuses on: 1) research-based design and publishing practices through the lens of food. 2) culinary experiences with various cuisines and their narratives behind.

Colofon

Concept Development, Visual Design, Communication Rossy Liu
Concept Development, Tool & Interaction Design, Exhibition Design Ziyi Lian
Research, Visual Design Zijian Miao
Concept Development, Project Development, Execution & Oversight Tian Xia