Despite the fact that food is a basic human need and right, we continue to struggle to feed everyone in the way they need. Food is something that connects us all and is both deeply personal and political. All our connections to food vary greatly, from cultural practices to nutritional necessities and yet the systems we design to facilitate our relationships to our food struggle to meet our pluralistic needs and desires.

Our open-studio workshop leveraged participatory, relational, and materials methods for engaging the public in generating and sense-making insights of complex systems by mapping personal stories and their relationships for collaborative visioning of our collective futures.

We invited the public to take a seat at our table as we collectively map the Eindhoven food system through the stories and objects shared at our table. By mapping the stories of our everyday lives we begin to fill the narratives of tomorrow with the things that mean the most to us today. This relational mapping practice uses stories and objects to visualise opportunities and can help us articulate what we would perhaps otherwise not be able to express. Additionally we use research informed speculative prompt cards with space to 'fill in the blank' to drive the many diverse visions of our possible future(s).

This live research project and pilot project was presented at Dutch Design week 2024 from Oct 19-27. The work is founded from an existing research project "Collaborative Futures: Food Futures 2031" done at the Glasgow School of Art by MeDes students and graduate students in collaboration with Glasgow Council's Centre for Civic Innovation.