OurGoods

Caviar Demystified

Elizabeth Jones fascinated students with a slide show presentation of the origins and process of harvesting the coveted caviar. The class indulged in various types of caviar while learning about the impact of fish farming and pollution on how we consume seafood.

From Elizabeth:

I wanted to teach at Trade School because caviar does not have to be elitist - and one can learn a lot about the perils of our oceans through the story of the sturgeon. I also really like the idea of having classes about single food items. I think caviar is something that brings certain images to mind for different people - I suppose I am interested in what these are (though we didn’t really explore this in the class). The underlying desire for me if to get people to continue a dialogue around food - not just around great restaurants and vintages of wine - but how food is linked to larger historical and political decisions - the rise of postmodernist art movements and issues of gender and queerness. Now, there’s a much larger conversation about climate and food is linked to this discussion as well - only recently has NY incorporated these issues within. Nutrition studies has further fueled the western societies eating issues - and we live in a city that is saturated with restaurants - that can separate us from our identities and fuel the consumerism that NYers end of embracing. I feel as though Food is for some, the only way individuals have personal connections - it often gets people away from their computers and off the internet…..
I think Trade School is beautiful - from a design perspective, from the curation and execution. It should live on as a platform for individuals who can’t afford school to have a place to be inspired and then potentially teach too. Or think critically about what they can talk about - It successfully inspires human engagement and education.

- OurGoods - It’s a venue that inspires creativity. The discussion around the state of our economy, our reliance on oil, on social security, health care - it’s a place where you are forced to think about alternative ways to satiate - it’s something we should do more often, that we shy away from… I think people often are not apt to follow through sometimes on promises - and this might often be a general feeling and so it evokes ideas around personal trust and our human authenticity - how giving are we when there is expectation or a service involved? What intrinsic value do these services provide and how do we measure them - and what are the various levels of need vs. want are we evaluating. It can be an uncomfortable space for the brain - but it the uncomfortable experiences (or what might be perceived as uncomfortable) that often teach us the most. There are issues of ownership, personalization and general emotion that bartering and the Trade School experience can bring about - it brings awareness over our desires to engage as a community member. I feel as though OurGoods might thrive with a continued space like Trade School - to extend a physical space where one can engage with the community.

It’s a stone soup of education, art, outreach, design, collaboration, interdisciplinary, interdependent, greens, reds, rainbows and radicals.