GARLIC & GREENS

GARLIC & GREENS focuses on food and migration stories. The final product will be a multi-media experience accessible for for people with visual disabilities and their allies.

To meet this challenge, GARLIC & GREENS is researching different types of tactile art: images meant to be touched that are designed specifically for audiences with low or no vision. Our project will lso be informed by audio games and interactive documentary. Through these and other examples, we will explore the fluidity of visible and invisible media.

Increasingly the practice of artists and media makers has taken on many forms. Audiences are asked to smell, feel, taste, and hear in addition to engaging in ways of seeing. Our project is a part of sensory studies, an interdisciplinary field that begins with an anthropology of the senses as it intersects with aesthetics and phenomenology.

GARLIC & GREENS was inspired by the artists' work with Archeworks. While developing designs for an accessible landscape at the north end of Chicago's Washington Park, we recognized the importance of connecting edible gardening to cooking traditions and anecdotal stories from people in this historically Black neighborhood. During the Great Migrations, people searched for a respite from racism and more job opportunities in northern cities. This human movement was accompanied by the journey of southern American food traditions including soul food ingredients like okra, beans, yams, and various dark leafy greens among others. For that reason, GARLIC & GREENS welcomes participation from everyone while focusing on stories about food traditions from those of African ancestry.

GARLIC & GREENS is making a special effort to reach audiences with low or no vision because Black Americans are at a higher risk for sight loss from glaucoma, diabetes and hypertensive retinopathy. The good news is that these diseases can be prevented with a healthy diet and regular access to health care. GARLIC & GREENS will help participants draw connections between cultural heritage, culinary traditions, food access, and health and wellness.

To learn more or to participate, you may find us at http://garlicandgreens.info

January 2012 interview on turnstyle

February 2012 interview on Make-Space

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