3 Days of Fat
3 Days of Fat, a collaboration between Thought Collider, Arne Hendricks and the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King's, is a series of 'live' art-science experiments, focused on the construction of an island of fat, to critically reflect upon our complex relationship with this material, what it is and what it might yet become
Photograph by Hanneke Wetzer
Tickets for public brainstorms
Wednesday 10 October, 17.30-19.00: Life & Ecology public brainstorm
On Wednesday 10 October a public brainstorm exploring fat's role in life and ecology will be joined by:
Natsai Audrey Chieza, Founder of bio design lab Faber Futures
Professor Snezhana Oliferenko, Group Leader of Comparative Biology of Mitotic Division Lab, The Francis Crick Institute and Randall Centre for Cell & Molecular Biophysics, King’s College London
Dr Jeremy Carlton, Group Leader of Organelle Dynamics Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute.
Thursday 11 October, 17.30-19.00: Health & Beauty public brainstorm
On Thursday 11 October a public brainstorm exploring fat's role in health and beauty will be joined by:
Alan Warburton, artist, Somerset House Studios
Dr Grace Williams, artist and researcher, The Courtauld Institute of Art
Krysten Resnick, Ori Tahiti / Hawaiian Hula dancer
Elisabeth Cresta and Caroline Day, Fight The Fads
Friday 12 October, 17.30-19.00: Energy public brainstorm
On Friday 12 October a public brainstorm exploring fat's role in energy will be joined by:
Lucy Sanderson, Somerset House Studios artist and co-founder of Berber Berber
Thomas Fudge, CEO of WASE
Adrienne E. Treeby, Founder of Crown and Queue Meats
Professor Mike Michael, Sociologist of science and technology at University of Exeter
Location:The Arcade at Bush House, King's College London, Strand, London WC2B 4PJ
This is a free event, however, places to the public brainstorm are limited, therefore we ask that you please sign-up to avoid disappointment.
The project
In November 2017, the 130-tonne ‘Monster of Whitechapel’ was wrestled from the bowels of east London. This ‘fatberg’, a congealed mass of fat, wet wipes and nappies, stretched the length of two football pitches, taking workmen armed with shovels and high-powered jets three weeks of around the clock effort to extract.
Fat. 'The' iconic substance of our time. It relates to life. It relates to health. It relates to energy, beauty, ecology and consumption. Fat today is not so much a description of material or size but a moral category tainted with criticism and contempt. But what is fat if its 'behaviour' becomes so unpredictable, overtaking not only our bodies but our systems? Do we still understand this substance?
The 3 Days of Fat programme will consist of a series of public experiments, happenings and discussions, focused on the construction of an island of fat. Employing this 'Fatberg' as icon, the project brings together knowledge and expertise from all walks of life to confront society with fat as substance, and critically discuss our complex relationship with this material, what it is and what it might become.
A thought-provoking article on fat written by artistic lead Mike Thompson is featured in the September 2018 issue of Big Issue magazine and can also be read here.
Project events
3 Days of Fat Dates: 10-12 October 2018 Venue: The Arcade at Bush House Time: Open 14:00-20:00 each day: 14:00 - 17:00 Exhibition and live experiments with invited guests 17:30 - 19:00 Public discussion with invited guests Free entry
Project team
Dr Charlotte Mills - academic lead
Graduating from University of Reading with BSc Food Science in 2009, Dr Charlotte Mills embarked on a PhD investigating the impact of coffee roasting on cardiovascular and gut health. She then joined King’s College London as a Postdoctoral Research Associate where she specialised in the impact of different food components on cardiovascular health. Most recently her work has focused on the impact of trans fat replacements called interesterified fats on lipid metabolism and vascular health.
Since starting this collaboration, Charlotte has returned to the University of Reading to take up a lectureship in Nutritional Sciences, but remains a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s.
Thought Collider - artistic lead
Thought Collider are an art/design research practice exploring metabolic processes, bodies and spaces, and residents at Somerset House Studios. The studio comprises the work of Mike Thompson (UK) and Susana Cámara Leret (ES), experimenting with the meanings and values derived from alternative ways of experiencing built and mediated environments, motivated by emergent nature cultures.
Arne Hendricks
Arne Hendriks is a researcher, artist and creator who explores the edges of specific cultural values that define our relationship with the planet. In Hendriks’ opinion, we should open our minds to radical, new ideas and disruptive practices. In the project The Incredible Shrinking Man, he looks into the question if man could not get smaller instead of bigger, how this could be achieved, and what the positive consequences would be. If we shrunk to 50cm, a single chicken could feed 100 people.
3 Days of Fat is a collaboration between King's College London's Department of Nutritional Sciences, Thought Collider and Arne Hendricks, brokered and supported by the Culture team at King’s, in partnership with Somerset House Studios.
Partner organisations: MU Artspace, Stichting NDSM and Goldsmiths, University of London.