ECONUT | How might we change our food habits to adapt local ecosystem?
by alterR.studio
alterR.studio
alterR. is a research and design studio dedicated to alternative realities. We use experimental artifacts and immersive experiences as the medium to frame our preferable long-term futures with ecological thinking, helping humanity to manage the disruptive forces of ongoing environmental, technological, and cultural changes, and plan our next evolution.
Shihan Zhang is an interdisciplinary designer whose passion lies in challenging cultural stereotypes and social preconceptions through building experiences of future-present intersections. Her works are expanding technologies’ possibilities and extrapolating world conditions to address anthropocene challenges. Through a systematic and cultural lens, her works inspire conversation and empower her audience to reflect. She gave talks and exhibited works worldwide, and her works have been humbly recognized by FastCo. World Changing Ideas, WIRED Creative Hack Award (Japan), International Design Excellence Awards, 100 Design of the Year 2019 by Award360 (Asian), and etc.
Contact info
Email: shihanzhang.design@gmail.com
Instagram: @alterr.studio & @shihan.design
Our environment is broken and vulnerable as a result of human activities and expansion.
Biodiversity loss is one of the most urgent environmental challenges and our food habits and agriculture systems are the main factors contributing to this problem. As a response to this issue, Econut speculates about an alternative future in which we thrive in a non-human-centered co-living ecosystem. Econut proposes an eco-balancing food (Econuts) and movement (Ecologarian) which suggest eating invasive species in order to reduce the current food industry's negative impact on biodiversity.
From designed objects to imagined lifestyles, Econut inquires about how we may shift our food habits to better work with the ecosystem’s resilience and open up a novel perspective into humanity in its comprehensive context.
People involved:
Design: alterR.studio (Shihan Zhang & Qinqin Yang)
Mentor: Fiona Raby, University Professor of Design and Social Inquiry and a Fellow of the Graduate Institute for Design Ethnography and Social Thought at The New School in New York
Support: NEW INC & Science Sandbox Consulting
Biologist: Cooper Galvin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Hawaii at Manoa
