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Food is the new sex

"Food is the last ingestible substance you can indulge in with obsessiveness without being frowned on by society"

Steven Poole, You aren't what you eat

The Sexualized image of food

Has our appetite for food replaced our appetite for sex? Is food is the new sex? A while ago I posted the teaser for Lady Gaga's new video 'Cake'. I returned to watch the full version after reading an interesting article in Gourmand magazine about the sexualized image of food in the media, i.e. 'gastroporn'. It talked about Steven Pool's new book 'You aren't what you eat' that ponders on how we have become so obsessed with food. True, chefs are the new gurus of our current era and I have noticed how food is slowly replacing fashion with seasonal trends and visually engaging magazines. It's not about dieting anymore, it's about enjoying, indulging and obsessing about quality ingredients. More than that, images of food are being retouched, carefully lit and styled- objects for our gaze and imagination. As the article points out 'food is fun, generous, sumptuous and beautiful', sold to us by advertisers as the perfect partner ( my favorite is magnum and haagen daaz ice-cream). With single households on the rise, and with the stress of urban life stopping us from finding the perfect partner, is food as Poole argues 'elevating from a basic need to a safe and submissive substitute for sex'? Besides a finger-licking Nigella, Gaga's video is pop-cultures answer to this. Here, the man (or woman) has been replaced by a cream cake, the new object to rub up against, lick, suck and getting excited by.

From Melt-together romance to 'I'd rather fuck my ice-cream'

In a recent ad for Haagen Dazs, a woman turns down sex with the hot man (Bradley Cooper), after seducing him just to lock the door between them and get her hands on his tub of ice-cream. This looks more like she's already chosen her preferred option, rather than being some kind of foreplay. It's interesting to watch Haagen Dazs' 'Melt together' advert from a few years ago, that by contrast was about sharing, romance and with no signs of food-lovemaking.

Haagen Dazs TV ad, 2013

'Melt together', 2009

Wonderfully glitchy and dreamy pictures of Tokyo

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Digital imperfection

If you think of craft, you'd think of the time and effort; the process that lies behind making the product. It is easy to emphasize this hand-made element and turning it into a design feature, by leaving scratches and cracks in the wood, or leaving the object unfinished with an uneven surface.

One would think that in our current techno-era; of digital production and 3D-printed objects, things would be increasingly mass-produced, flawless and slick. If you consider the i-Phone, that arguably defines the optimal object of the 21st century; aesthetically it defines material perfection.

In this light it is interesting to consider how design, in fact is going the opposite way, exactly because of new technologies. Adhocracy, an exhibition that opened during Istanbul Design Week last year, explored the the impact of digital networks and open-source thinking on the design world and the role of the designer (as a 'hero') and a creative, even disruptive era; a "move away from the dominance of the bureaucratic model of organization, typical of the industrial era, towards an approach that embraces bottom-up innovation". This means that design is increasingly involving users, but what's important here is that the expression is moving from the finished product to the process.

This on the one hand can mean "hacked" design (which is becoming a widespread technique, not just in the margins of the design world but used by mainstream brands) or the idea of imperfection applied to digital objects.

Antwerp design studio Unfold's Stratigraphic Manufactury, (a project presented during the exhibition) is a great example of this. It explored how 3D printed objects created from identical digital files can have the same imperfections and unique features as handmade ones.

"It’s more than simply a technological revolution; it's a cultural revolution we’re undergoing now"

Joseph Grima- curator of Adhocracy

Stratigraphic Manufactury- 3D printed objects by Unfold

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GLITCH: Designers are taking inspiration from digital glitches and re-interpreting mistakes and malfunctions on-screen into details in textiles, graphics and product design

Branded Books

Magazine-styled websites is a popular way to go for retailers at the moment, making the online shopping experience a lot more inspiring. On the other hand, editorial content is becoming shoppable, and we have now reached a point where fashion blogs, online fashion mags and retail sites blur into one big sticky cloud. In the light of this, it’s interesting to see Ben Sherman going the opposite way, embracing the (allegedly redundant) medium of a good old book. Why? To mark the 50th anniversary of the brand’s first shirt. ‘50 Years of British Style Culture’ traces the history of menswear through British subcultures, mixed in with the brand’s own story.

Print might not be dead after all, as Karl Lagerfeld reminded us recently; ‘The smell of a freshly printed book is the best smell in the world”, when releasing ‘Paper Passion- a perfume that both smell and is packaged as a book. Acne also released its first book ‘Snowdon Blue’ last year, to market a range of shirts choosing to adopt a colour over a subculture. Yes, people do like to shop online and read e-books, but in an increasingly interconnected world they also value tactile objects. Fancy coffee table books is noting new and Brandzines have been around for a while (see Acne Paper for a good example), but what about the potential of the branded Mook? The concept– a cross between a magazine and a book, typically dedicated to one brand, glossy and costing around 15 dollars- was invented by Tokyo publisher Takarajimasha in 2005. Despite the country’s print publishing crisis, the book breed became a huge hit among fashionistas in Japan, reporting considerably stronger sales figures than books and magazines. The YSL mook sold 1 million copies for instance, which might be down to the fact that they are not sold as a luxury item but can be picked up in local convenience stores.

Mezcaleria Quiquiriqui's 'shit swap' is on tomorrow, 4th of April

M-commerce or swap-shops?

In a time of austerity, consumers are expected to shop less, and be more critical in their choices. However, as we become increasingly immersed in a digital space, a new kind of mindless shopping is creeping up on us. A recent article in the New York Times drew my attention to our new world of perpetual shopping. Increasingly, we no longer have to search for products; they come to us through daily emails of endless offering, suggesting, recommending. Or like Hukkster, who lets you know when the price drops on a product you're interested in- goodbye comparison sites! Although this helps us save money, I've got a feeling that we end up buying more. It makes me think of the stuff at the back of my wardrobe that I bought because it was on sale or a bargain. As we're entering the next phase, m-commence, things are set to get worse, or easier depending on how you look at it. Shazam, the company behind the app that tells you what song is playing on the radio by holding up your phone, is not far from applying the same technology to images. As soon as image-recognition technology is fully developed and brand partnerships in place you'll be able to hold up your phone to the TV and "Shazam" the jacket Rhianna is wearing on the x-factor, say, and be able to buy it with a click. Shoppable music videos is already a reality, and online 'magazines' are turning into retailers. We are (unconsciously) shopping all the time.

Alongside this blur of commerce and content (or life!) sits the remaining fact that people are increasingly keen to swap, borrow and rent instead of buying. You can now rent art at a monthly fee for instance, or borrow someones home when going on holiday. The majority of my clothes come from swap-shops in my local pub. I've been over the idea of 'getting the look' for a quite a while anyway.

On Rebellion

I have for long been a fan of photographer and film-maker Larry Klark, who's favorite subjects include teenagers, sex and violence. Harmony Korine, scriptwriter of controversial cult film Kids (directed by Klark) has just released his latest film Spingbreakers, incorporating the very same themes, but with a somewhat glossier aesthetic. Bikini clad Disney stars Vanessa-high school musical-Hudges and Selena-Justin Bieber-Gomez certainly feels more glamorous than Cloe Sevigny did in Kids, or Klark's documentation of suburban teenage life.

It makes me wonder what exactly it does to the Disney brand when their child-stars grow up and want to reinvent their image (on or off the big screen) and start drinking, doing drugs and playing with guns?

It might not be all that bad. Not so long ago I came across an article in Viewpoint magazine that talked about how alongside the persistent 'do good' movement, with core values such as 'authentic' and 'good intentions' (think sustainable, Bono, etc)- there is something more interesting going on. The value of 'being good' is changing. The Internet has created a culture of self-publishers, creating a new generation of narcissists that (Kardashian-style selfies aside) are provocative, comfortable in chaos and sometimes social outcasts. In fact, as the article goes on "do-gooding" has become irritating and even suspicious; we are becoming wary and confused by brands' "good intentions". Instead, hackers and disruptive ideas that can move us forward become more appealing.

There is a certain glamour and cool attached to this kind of rebellion, to being a freak. Self-acclaimed mis-fit Cat Marnell who blogs about her drug-taking and anti-social behavior is now its editor-at-large at Vice. In the last couple of years, we've seen Vice media empire grow alongside Murdoch's falling. As people lose trust in old, cooperate organisations, it gives way for new subversive brands and media. Last Sunday's Observer published a brilliant portrait of Vice founder Shane Smith and how he has managed to position the brand both as "an authentic voice of the outsider, and the new mainstream". There is something about Vice's absurdity (or reflections on the absurdities of the modern world) that feels very relevant today. Is acting out and being rude replacing our desire for doing good?

Springbreakers trailer

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