A responsive dining landscape created for the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Troy, NY to follow Ralph Lemon’s premiere of Four Walls.
Emilie Baltz was commissioned to provoke 40 top performance art curators in discussion of where the boundaries of performance exist, outside of the theater. Food designer Miguel Olivares assisted in the material research and development of the table and chairs in the DIS.COURSE dinning experience.
Taking as tenet that the act of eating is a performance of the everyday, and that the table is the metaphorical stage for this performance, the resulting artifact is a dining surface made from 180 yards of spandex stretched over a variety of convex and concave forms. As food is placed on the surface, the vessels “dance”, creating a mini performance for the diner, thereby reversing food and audience, meal and performer. The goal is to playfully question and subvert the traditional dining format and engagement through the use of form, material and movement.
Photography by Emilie Baltz
Over the course of the 3 hour meal, the light changes from dawn to dusk, changing the appearance of the table with shadow-play and marking the passage of time.
Grey, circular napkins were laser cut with each guest’s name and projected their identity onto the surface.
Soundscape by Colleen, The Golden Morning Breaks
Creative direction, design, production, installation and waitstaff service choreography by Emilie Baltz.
Food is by Chez Jose, Brooklyn.
The material chosen after several trials became Spandex. This material allowed for interaction and exploration between the participants, plating, and food. I after many ideations and models I developed the spandex cover, to be used during the dinner.
