2. Foodways Darmstadt Phase One: Marktforschung

We created more than two dozen maps with farmers, vendors, chefs, consumers, and activists of the ways that food moves in their community. The title of this section means “market research” and we did, for two consecutive Saturdays, set up a “stall” at the weekly farmers market  to make maps that showed the routes by which the vendors brought their food to market and the routes people traveled to take them home.

The format of the large scale maps became a signature in the project.  Printed on A0 paper (one square meter in area, roughly 33 x 41 inches), the maps evolved as we learned the range and level of detail that was necessary to enable a good dialogue.  Michael worked tirelessly in Illustrator to create the vector files that allowed our maps to look great at every size.

Cartography, both Cartesian and vernacular, is an ongoing interest for us as artists and has been part of many projects. This phase of Foodways highlighted pedestrian and cycling culture in Germany as there is no question that the majority of the consumers in our project moved their food on foot and by bicycle. We learned not only how and where people moved their food but also how carefully they chose their routes.

A video by Hans-Peter Wollmann of Part One can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Md03fFDl8.