Evoluzione del concept Food Design:

Marinella Ferrara; Sonia Massari

Marinella Ferrara Politecnico di Milano https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4099-3137
Sonia Massari Gustolab International - Institute for Food Studies https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1471-1199

Keywords: Design History, Food Design, Food Engineering, Food Studies, Slow Food

Abstract

The text offers a wide-ranging reflection on the themes of technological development in the food sector and its relationship with society and territories, highlighting the role of ideologies and design criticism: both through the reading of phenomena by experts and communities that have expressed culturally mediated activities located within the framework of the globalized food system. The essay as a whole outlines the evolution of the relationship between design and nutrition from the second half of the 19th century to the present day, in the Italian and North American context. The examples presented here demonstrate how the transition to a mass society has provided a fertile environment for the world of food and design to interact. In its development, food design has been consolidating itself as an interdisciplinary field of study which has identified appropriate lines of research in respect to the different cultural nature of the contexts. Compared to the past, contemporaneity offers a reality in which contextual cultures hybridize and in which the local and global dimensions, the natural and the technological, the analogue and the digital, the industrial and the artisan coexist. The spaces of the project are increasing in which food and design scholars (together with experts from other disciplines) can find a common ground of study to contribute responsibly to the spread of food cultures that are more sustainable and less harmful for future generations.

Author Biographies

Marinella Ferrara, Politecnico di Milano

Architect, PhD, and associate professor of Industrial Design at Politecnico di Milano, Design Department. Since 1989 she has been performing scientific activity and teaching at several universities and academies in Italy (Catania, Florence, Palermo, etc.) and abroad as a visiting professor (University of Barcelona, UEM in Madrid, IADE in Lisbon, Izmir University of Economics, Universidad de Uruguay and University Jingdezhen-China). At Politecnico di Milano she coordinates MADEC (the Research Centre of Material Design Culture) leading scientific research about design-driven material innovation, and the skills of design in relation to technological innovations and materials. She is the author of books and essays that examine the relationship between design and materials (published by Springer, Lupetti, Alinea, Gangemi, etc). Other topics she is very found of are: design for cultural identities valorisation, and the evolution of the design in the Mediterranean countries. Since 2011 she is the editors-in-chief of the online journal «PAD. Pages on Arts & Design» (www.padjournal.net). Internationally she cooperates with several magazines of design. She is member of the executive committee of ADI (Association for Industrial Design), coordinator of the Scientific Committee for Professional Training and member of the Internationalization Team.

Sonia Massari, Gustolab International - Institute for Food Studies

Academic Director of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Food Studies Programs in Rome, she is director of the Gustolab International, Institute for Food Studies. She teaches at ISIA Design School and Polytechnic School of Design (Milan). She is member of the Food Design ADI commission. She received her PhD in Food System and Interaction Design from the University of Florence. Since 2004 she has worked for various education and communication agencies, and research centres of the European Commission, as a researcher, project manager, evaluator and teacher. From 2005 to 2007 she was Professor of Design at Montclair State University (NJ) and Professor at CUNY (NY). In 2012, she started working as Senior Scientific Advisor for the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition Foundation (now scientific coordinator). Winner of the 2012 "Women and Technologies" award: "Women Innovation Award" for women engaged in innovation in food and nutrition. She won the NAFSA International Innovative Research in International Education Award in 2014. She is an active member of ASFS (Association for the Study of Food and Society) and ambassador of WeforExpo. She is an editorial board member of the «International Journal of Food Design».

Evolution of the Food Design Concept

Historic Intersections between Food, Design and Western Food Culture

Abstract

Author Biographies