Food Media: Food and Technology as a Medium for Social Communication

Abstract

Besides being a source of nutrition and energy, food is a crucial medium that bonds people together, for pleasurable communication and socialization. I proposed ?Food Media? to signify food combined with digital technologies as a social medium. This research looked into two approaches of combining food and technology to enrich social communication and interaction, with the specific research questions being: 1) Can we enrich the co-dining experience between two remote parties by providing additional modalities other than visual and auditory channels? 2) Can food messaging service enabled by food printing be a viable and valuable messaging method? If yes, what are the uniqueness, values, and limitations as compared with traditional messaging services, such as text messaging using a computing device or paper? I developed two prototypes to demonstrate and investigate two specific cases, and furthered the understanding into the uniqueness and affordances of food as a social medium.