Time and microbes, tides and bodies: on fermentation as artistic practice and culinary cruising

Abstract

ABSTRACT Spotlighting creative practices that feature fermentation as an artistic medium, this essay surveys two collaborative projects—Tidetables: Venetian Speculative Gastronomy at TBA21’s Ocean Space in Venice in 2021 and Polyphonic Bodies II as part of the fifth season of Delfina Foundation’s The Politics of Food program in London in 2022—and situates them within the larger landscape of the development of fermentation not only as an artistic medium but also microbes as co-collaborators. In short, I seek to run with what Sandor Katz calls “the creative force of fermentation” (2020). To do so, I outline the relationship between fermentation and time and its orientation toward the future. I then build off of Sarah Ensor’s “ecology of cruising” (2017) to introduce what I call “culinary cruising” and, along the way, add galleries, museums, and studios to the stages where fermentation performs. The essay concludes by arguing for the importance of food studies research that travels beyond academic spaces and for the messiness of collaborations and the limits of control.