The idea:
My proposal is to research and design an open source food contamination scanner for mobile use to check for
various contaminants, e.g pesticides, cadmium etc. The results will be shared with other users via an online
app and twitter mapping the results locally and globally. There is already a database that collects chemical
data that can be added to and the results checked by scientists. https://www.cas.org/content/chemicalsubstances/propertydata
My idea is that people who use the food scanner contribute to this database and build up food data for use in
the project. The design is based on spectroscopy technology. This is the measure of light frequency in
objects/food. The spectrometer will be designed to be portable and connect to a smart phone. The data is
then sent via the phone to a project website/twitter account and to a database. The idea was partly inspired
from a project myself and Grafting Parlour member Kelly Andres+collaborators Max Kazemzadeh, Reza Safavi
developed as a very initial prototype a few years ago at Medialab Prado called the Lilypod. This explored water
quality with open source arduino and looked at a kit to develop local monitoring.
http://animatedlandscapes.tumblr.com/ Since then, I spent the summer at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel
residency in Shanghai, China exploring themes of survival and earthly imbalance. Food, air and water quality
are very real issues in Asia. There have been several food scares in the last few years-for example, the New
Zealand Fonterra’s baby milk powder botulism contamination, and Guangzhou rice with high levels of
cadmium due to local production of electronic products. There are many examples of collective data gathering
and monitoring in the open source community. The Fukushima Japanese disaster is one recent example. A
group of international designers set up a network called ‘Safecast.’ This is a global project working to empower
people with data, primarily by mapping radiation levels and building a sensor network, enabling people to
both contribute and freely use the data collected. http://blog.safecast.org/.
My plan with the food contamination project is to design and develop something similar to this network and
empower the people to understand what they are buying and eating and have the choice to go elsewhere if
they are not happy with the results. I am hoping that with the help of the proposed collaborators, I can
develop this project to a prototype stage and practically test the product. This project could really transform
the world of food contamination detection and monitoring and promote debate and change.
Key aspects envisaged in the project:
1) Workshop debate and public discussion. Some topics-history and implications of food production and
contaminates. ‘Official’ levels versus actual. How to detect edible and not edible in the wild. Exploration of the
implications of opening up this information and empowering the people to be able to test what they are eating.
I see this output as a large interactive diagram/app mapping the various debates. This will be carried out in
collaboration with Ms. Hwa Young and Ms. Nurit Bar Shai.
2) Design and development of the mobile scanning device and testing mobile application. Develop the mobile
food spectrometer phone attachment using low-cost open source materials in collaboration with Professor
N.Allen, Centre for Material Science and Professor Chris Smith, Center for Food Science, MMU and myself.
Develop the mobile application in collaboration with Hwa Young, Nurit Bar Shai and myself, with some
educational input to and from Creative Multimedia undergraduate and graduate students. I see this as a
working prototype of the device with the mobile app. We can then do a series of public user tests with
participants and food researchers in the field and video document these tests.
Team:
1) Project leader-Ms Saoirse Higgins, digital media artist-designer from Dublin, living in Manchester. Senior
Lecturer Creative Media, School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University. I have a background in product
design with a MA Interactive Media from the Royal College of Art and MSc Creative Media Arts and Sciences,
Media Lab, MIT, Boston. I am interested in revealing some of the connections between our visions of the world
we live in, our expectations for the future and the technology we use to help us with this. I explore the
contested spaces of public-private, man-machine, man-nature. My work is process-driven and has a
scientifically influenced, playful approach. I have shown work at the Thessaloniki Biennale, Science gallery,
Dublin; Montreal Film and New media festival; Transmediale, Berlin; Siggraph, New Orleans; Exit Art and
Location One gallery, New York. I have held residences at e-Mobilart Lab, Disonancias in Spain, Location1
gallery in New York and the Banff Centre for the Arts. I am a member of the international art-science group
The Grafting Parlour.
2) Ms Nurit Bar Shai, studied at ITP, New York. Lives and works between New York and Israel.
co-founder Genspace, (a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting citizen science and access to
biotechnology) and a member of the artist group-The Grafting Parlour.
http://www.nuritbarshai.com/objectivity/
http://genspace.org/person/Nurit/Bar-Shai
3) Ms Hwa Young Yung. Studied at Ravensbourne and Parsons, New York.
Co-founder of Madlab, and graphic designer. Lives and works in Manchester. http://madlab.org.uk
4) Professor Chris Smith, Director, Manchester Food Research Centre, Professor of Food Science, MMU.
5) Professor N.Allen, Center for Material Science, MMU.
http://saoirsehiggins.tumblr.com/
www.thegraftingparlour.org/
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~saoirse/recent_projects.html
http://fieldnotesiceland.tumblr.com/