Future imagery of synthetic food

Abstract

With a constantly growing world population, food production through traditional agriculture and farming is putting the planet’s resources to the test. Could artificial food ensure adequate nutrition for everyone in the world? Assuming that future genetics and biomolecular science will be able to meet a worldwide production of synthetic food, the following project explores through a speculative approach a plausible future scenario in which future we shift from organic to a fully synthetic food consumption. The project was conducted through the Speculative Critical Design (SCD) methodology and supported by a qualitative approach. The following study focused in particular on the consumer response to biosynthetic technology. The findings oriented the discussion on consumer product attachment and on the question of food as an object. The study considered food as a non-human entity and on the basis of the Tamagotchi effect tried to hypothesize the establishment of an emotional connection in the form of a bond with synthetic food. This strategy could be an alternative method to bring the consumer closer to this new technology. The role of the designer can be useful in facilitating the elaboration of a complex system such as the food sector which include relational, social, political, environmental, economic and technological contexts and SCD specifically could be the right way to explore these topics.