Annotated Placemats
2012
Annotated Placemats is a placemat-based system to support food reverie, reflections on meals eaten and the food experience as it was shared, not seen. Inspiration is taken from food journals dinner party ledgers, wine label collections, as well the "documentation" produced on tablecloths by remnants of the eating process.
After the placemats are used, they become natural charts of the experience of eating. Food and drink leave traces on the paper’s surface, providing an emergent history from residue. The placemats can be stored in binders, creating a chronology of meals eaten, or sorted to evoke particular themes. Sorting by meal creates a data-dense understanding of a particular event, while one person’s history may provide a revealing understanding of his or her foibles.
