What's For Dinner

Guests go through a de-familiarized entry. They are greeted by a landmark at a designated location provided the morning of the event via e-mail, blindfolded (using napkins), and then guided towards the experience space. The rest of the experience is split into stations.

Guests are instructed to choose a meal and place their order by taking a grocery basket, placing in it a meal box and its corresponding jug of water, to the next station. The color, contents, and weight of the basket reflect the embodied water content of the meal’s ingredients.

Guests place their orders. Server hands guests a glass of water filled to a certain level (depending on their chosen meal) and informed that this glass of water is to become the currency during the course of the dinner. Guests are also provided a waiting time before they can be seated (depending on their chosen meal).

Guests enter a reception area where they can interact with each other and “purchase” beer with their water.

The station also instructs guest to reflect on their water use, the things they care about, and find a commonality with another guest.

Guests are seated when their timers go off. The table consists of three levels placed at different heights. Each table height reflects the corresponding meal’s water use.

Table-top arrangements feature resources and substances that were needed to produce the main ingredient of each meal.

After a guided meditation, and dialogue, the dinner ends with the passing out of the “check”, which reveals the contents and name of each version of the meal. The “cost” of the meals is presented using water as currency.