A Thousand Plates Event

A Thousand Plates explores the topic of food as a means to question society by examining traditions across cultures and throughout the centuries. The exhibition will examine food as a fundamental need, modern food production and its relationship to the environment, the culture of eating and its relationship to memory.

Our exhibition title refers to Deleuze and Guattari’s “A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia"—a philosophical text written with a rhizomatic structure—where connections between ideas and references defy linear, structural, or casual relations. Every point can conceptually link to somewhere else. In our view, our relationship to food is similar. The production, consumption, distribution and marketing of food is connected to tradition, culture, individual and social taste as well as healthcare, environmental issues, and global politics that shape the contemporary society.

The SDSU School of Art and Design will be presenting a juried art exhibition of student and faculty work investigating food as the conceptual theme for SDSU’s Downtown Gallery. Works will explore the topic of food as a means to explore society by examining traditions across cultures and centuries. The exhibition will examine food as a fundamental need, modern food production and its relationship to the environment, and the culture of eating and memory. 

Learning outcomes include:

1. share creative design, architecture and other visual arts proposals and strategies that propose humanitarian efforts to fight worldwide hunger.
2. provide creative educational art and design solutions to promote healthier eating habits.
3. investigate important local and regional food politics and other socioenvironmental aspects of food resource impacts within California and the American Southwest.
4. contemplate important environmental and ecological philosophies regarding one!of our most important shared natural resources, that without, humans are unable to survive.