Edible Playscapes: A Hands-On Dining Experience sees food as a game to positively change the traditional Western dining experience without cutlery. By transforming the dining table into a playscape, this project gives people the opportunity to explore food with their hands, experiment freely and create food combinations that encourage reflection on our eating rituals. The shared metal surface, reminiscent of the surfaces of an industrial kitchen, provides a space where it is allowed and encouraged to spill, drip and smear. The game offers the opportunity to engage creatively and consciously with the theme while emphasising touch as a mindful and intimate way of eating that challenges conventional social and cultural norms.

Why play with food?

As children, we are often admonished not to play with food, and yet we often play with food - moulding and changing it and using it in games or to practice cultural traditions. So we play with food more than we realise. In this context, play is based on trying to understand the world around us in a creative, imaginative, curious and meaningful way. By framing food as a playful experience, this project aims to build a stronger and more interactive relationship with our food and ourselves and to become more aware of what and how we eat.

Alejandra Alarcón from Mexico currently lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. The multidisciplinary designer and artist explores the intersection of food and art through its social, political and cultural dimensions. With an experimental approach, she creates interactive artefacts, edible installations and multi-sensory performances that question our relationship with food. Alejandra holds a Master's degree in Contemporary Design from Aalto University in Helsinki. Her work has been exhibited at the Museo Universitario del Chopo, Helsinki Design Week and Dutch Design Week.