01:Transdisciplinarity in gastronomic settings
“Transdisciplinarity is a concept that is applied in various areas such as research, teaching and practice. It is about researching and teaching across disciplinary boundaries in order to gain new insights and solve social problems” -everyone-
Gastronomy is a lively place and a participant in societies topics. It is often used as a center of enjoyment, meeting place, planning and critically thinking about it together- it’s a regulars' table. We express ourselves through food. How we eat
Both the guests and the service providers are in discussion more frequently. Employment relationships, precarious working methods, demanding guests or consumers who don't behave adequate came to the surface of the press.
After Covid, the question of systemic relevance took place.
This question is still with us afterwards, as can be seen in the industry's problems.
A certain defiance and uncertainty about value lead to stressed systems as a whole. Shortage of skilled people, price pressure on both sides, a demand for individuality with the highest standards in short time including sustainable factors at a reasonable price are all assumed. Including the major shifts in society by GDI at Zurich, we see ourselves in great change.
The romantic view of hospitality and enjoyment contrasts with a stubborn reality.
A rigidity to survive in business. Fear of new technology such as AI and change- there is a certain reactive way of responding to the needs of the industry. In Switzerland, culinaric settings are therefore sometimes a step behind. Certainties also inhibit courage in gastronomic activities. Transdiscipline can provide a solution approach with future-oriented ways of thinking in order to change from this forced persistence to a more fluid way of thinking.
It is not a service as such, but rather a demonstration of interests and disciplines that can be exciting. And it can also satisfy the requirements of the buying clientele. Gastronomy, with its ability to react quickly and adept to unpredictability, is predestined to dedicate itself to transdisciplinarity. Parts are already made and the way we live gastronomy is already made up of various disciplines.
Foodculturedays based in Vevey is showing us, what it could look like.
Biology, history, art, technology, craftsmanship, society, language, time, humans, animals, plants, everything supposedly inorganic, construction, planning and implementation of a building, architecture, antroposophy too, light, digital, the geology of wine, stones and their effects, alchemy, spagyrics in drinks, fabrics and fibers, material science from silver to cotton, fragrances and smells, pleasant or confusing, mathematics, geometry and their music.
The list is constantly expanding. Within culinary settings we bring these disciplines together into one space, to then pass on a theme or a story via an edible means of transportation. As a consumer of these ideas, I experience for a short time the thoughts that people have put into the construction of the culinary space. I pay and leave.
The mastery of these disciplines finds expression in gastrosophy which is a already a set medium and can be found at the “Internationales Forum für Gastrosophie”.
Just show ourselves new ways of how this spaces can be.
It doesn't have to be monetarily burdensome to learn these disciplines. Courage and curiosity towards the disciplines we already serve can have an impact. Get rid of old and include new ones. Because movement in time, which is prevented by numbness and pressure, must be initiated in some form by us too.
The gastronautical society in Basel works with different disciplines, philosophizes about them and presents the inside of its results as an edible possibility. Something is happening. Slowly, but it is happening.
