We know it well as a screwed-up scrap of paper, a faded gray presence that lingers in our wallets and coat pockets: the receipt. In Kathrina Dankl’s IDEAL EATING EXPERIENCE, this supposedly mundane object played a key role: Surrounded by a rich variety of ideas related to subjects such as hospitality and the production, distribution, and consumption of food – and as a record of our own behavior, a motivating set of instructions, or even a warning, it offered visitors their own connection with everyday life and, hence, with a global issue (for the future). Purchase completed!

The Vienna Business Agency used the format Urban Food & Design to show how design can play a part in food production, consumption patterns, the culture of dining, and the creation of the social context of food and, as a result, help to shape the future. The centerpiece of this year’s edition was an interactive installation by the design researcher Kathrina Dankl that enabled us to personally experience local and international positions on the subject. The playful presentation in the Festival Headquarters of the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK invited visitors to question everyday processes in a familiar purchasing situation, to try out something new, and even, where possible, to change their own habits.

According to the curator Kathrina Dankl, IDEAL EATING EXPERIENCE should give us a taste for change in the following way: “Visitors can choose from a range of snacks and, depending upon their choice, are offered information about design projects that reimagine, question, and classify consumer behavior. In thematic terms, these projects range from the perception of ideal forms, both human and vegetable, to the use of lichen as a forward-looking food supplement. At the same time, the exhibition offers insights into the consequences of our personal consumer behavior that are presented to the visitors in the form of a receipt.”

A publication featuring all the projects shown in the exhibition can be downloaded here.

Idea and curation: Studio Dankl
Design team: Kathrina Dankl and Lucy Li
Exhibition design: Robert Rüf with Dóra Medveczky
Exhibition graphics: Michael Leithner and Felix Heuritsch (Studio Weholo)