De-Extinction Dinner: Beijing highlights the emerging technologies, desires and risks of De-Extinction: a movement to revive, restore and possibly eat, extinct species.
It explores a future where extinct species are both revived and reheated, prototyping the ways they might be reared, cooked and paired with existing landscapes and ingredients. The work was installed in the exhibition Balcony for the Brave in Beijing, and shared stories of extinct, almost extinct, or (possibly) de-extinct species relevant to Chinese ecosystems.
Each visitor to the De-Extinction Dinner installation was challenged to imagine a world where humans continue to shape the abundance, distribution and existence of other species, asking what is the role de-extinction plays in planetary biodiversity? What is the motivation? What are the unintended consequences? How does it taste?
MENU
1. AMUSE BOUCHE
The Not-Quite-Dead-Yet
Sausage of Hybrid American-Chinese Chestnuts & Père David’s Deer. Served w/ Forest Pu-Erh Tea
Should humans create Biological Back-Ups for species that are headed towards extinction? What are the tradeoffs of maintaining populations off-site, in captivity or breeding new hybrid versions?
—
2. SOUP COURSE
An Ingredient That Got Away (But could return. To our bowls.)
Chinese Paddlefish Soup
Does the Nostalgia for the Taste of an extinct ingredient help or hinder species revival?
—
3. HORS D’OEUVRE COURSE
Organs Without Bodies
Lab-Grown Dodo Gizzards
Why rear whole animals if we can just grow the tastiest cells and organs in the lab?
—
4. SALAD COURSE
Plants for Man and Beast Alike
Celeriac, Rhubarb, Hazelnut & Ramson
Where would de-extinct animals live? Labs, zoos or rewilded habitats? What if the landscapes where they once lived no longer exist? Should we create Edible Landscapes where humans and our de-extinct cousins can both forage?
—
5. ROAST COURSE
Revive & Reheat
De-Extinct Passenger Pigeon w/ sides from its unnatural environment
We ate them to death the first time around. Will it be different this time?
—
6. VEGETABLE COURSE
Surviving the Years, Months, Days
Roasted Heritage Corn (grown in Human Fertilizer)
What are we willing to give up to ensure that other species survive? Who gets to decide what organisms, traditions and life worlds are preserved?
—
7. DESSERT COURSE
Megafauna Haunted Fruit
Avocado & Chocolate Mousse with Papaya, Cherimoya, Sapote, Prickly Pear & Osage Orange
Who are the extinct Ecosystem Engineers that once assisted in the seed-spreading, migration, or maintenance of unwieldy plant species?
