exploring dining etiquette

subverting behaviour and environments with messy consequences

To explore dining cultures and the social power of etiquette, two dinner parties were set up and recorded, revealing etiquette’s power to disassociate diners from the destructive violent processes of consumption of other living things.

The resulting film revealed networks of interactions and the effect of environment on behaviour and vice versa, and the overriding nature of etiquette, which provided a social crutch to our disorientating experiences.

We first held a dinner for our tutors and friends in a basement prepared with chicken carcasses hanging from the ceiling, pig's heads, a tablecloth with a chintz pattern in what looked like blood, eating off two doors mounted on workbenches as a table, and all lit by candlelight and red bulbs. We were testing whether etiquette would help bring formality and orientation to this subverted dining environment, and sure enough it focused the conversation, and everyone's behaviour was relatively normal.



Our second experiment sought to subvert behaviour in the nice, clean and controlled environment of a restaurant on Old Street. Once cameras were set up and moles were planted, a game of 'pig-posh' began - alternating between overtly posh and civilised conversation and eating manners, and hands-free eating and gulping down wine as it poured down our especially-brought white shirts. Fantastic reactions and a good time had by all except the waiting staff and the miserable couple on table 4.

The group-produced film was then used in individual projects to develop social, communal and donative designs which subverted and played on the function of dining objects and social networks that form around dining experiences and physical layouts.




Posted on 11/06