From the Series
At the 2013 What Design Can Do conference Marije Vogelzang explained that she is not a food designer, but rather an eating designer as she works with the verb of eating.
I think food is perfectly designed by nature. I don’t need to design the food itself, I want to design the act of eating, says Vogelzang.
Using food as her material, Vogelzang creates installations, performances, dinners and works as a consultant for the food industry.
In this interview, the designer explained her Fake Meat project, in which she created new animals as an alternative to vegetarian products resembling meat. Each of the four animals were created with their own habitat, diet and story, and the way the animal looks depends on these three factors. The project started out as a range of prototypes but the meat alternative is now available in supermarkets in the Netherlands.
Vogelzang further gave insight into her water tasting project, which looks at how tap water can taste different depending on where it comes from. She gathered samples from all the provinces in the Netherlands and now invites people to do water tasting as an alternative to wine tasting. The project is aimed at making people aware of the serious issues the world faces due to water limitations and global warming. “It’s the role of the designer to work on serious issues like these,” says Vogelzang.
