Futurist Cookbook – Distant Family Dinner

The concept was to challenge the perception of an intimate family meal by slowly increasing the physical distance of diners over time. Allan Wexler's table ”Pulling Together, Pulling Apart” has one main hub and 9 individual tabletops that nest into the main. The main table was set with a lush family style meal by Marissa Lippert -- piles of sharable main dishes, sauces, salads, wine, flowers, candles, etc. Each individual table was set with dishware by Mondays, glassware, and extendable cutlery. The dinner started as servers brought out the family style dishes to the central table and the diners sat in front of their individual places - as show onlookers watched. The dinner began as any other, diners conversed, shared, and ate as normal. Every minute measured with a stopwatch and a tape measure the servers (Allan Wexler and Michael Yarinsky dressed as waiters in white button down shirts) returned to pull out one of the 9 individual tables 1 foot exactly. By the end of the hour the tables are pulled back 5 feet each from the table and the diners are separated at times nearly 30 feet apart. Over the hour, the meal changed dramatically - the physical acts of eating, sharing, and conversing started to break down. But humans are creative and the big question was slowly revealed - How might they find creative ways to maintain the social order of a family meal?

The conceptual wellspring for "Distant Family Dinner" is "A New Futurist Cookbook," a project conceived by Allan Wexler and Michael Yarinsky as a direct response to the 1932 Futurist Cookbook, a manifesto of culinary innovation by F. T. Marinetti.  The project seeks to harness the provocative energy, the emphasis on innovation, and the multi-sensory focus that characterized historical Futurism, but works to redirect these potent methods towards contemporary aims: broader awareness, inclusivity, and a thoughtful re-evaluation of our relationship with food.