Paper short abstract:

Airmailing culture is a project exploring embodied design through the practice of yogurt making in the Indian subcontinent.

Paper long abstract:

Airmailing culture is a project exploring embodied design through the practice of yogurt making in the Indian subcontinent. The project investigates how food practices are conditioned by human and more-than-human entanglements. It opens the discussion on ontological design by asking to what extent our practices effect the environment and to what extent the environments we inhabit effect our practices. As Anne-Marie Willis, design theorist, said, “We design our world, while our world acts back on us and designs us”.

The project is rooted in the early 20th century practice of smearing ParAvion envelopes with yogurt, drying them and then mailing them to diasporic communities to use as yogurt starters for a taste of the familiar, acidic yogurt. Were these acts of care in fact doing the opposite for the environment by introducing new microbial elements? What was the unmaking in the making of this culture?

I explore Airmailing culture using participatory methods- by dissipating the cultured yogurt smeared on an envelope amongst willing testers to start their own yogurts. Typical yogurt from the Indian subcontinent has a pungent acidic smell, followed by a tart taste. A workshop with the testers follows. Starting with a sniff test to determine acidity, followed by tasting, the airmailing culture workshop relies on gathering data on the types of milk and methods used by the participants to start their own yogurt cultures.

This project explores the nuances of culture through human and more-than-human interactions and through making, investigates the acts of care and labour.