Al dente textiles. Notes on edible textiles as economic and ecological intermediality

One of the red lines of aesthetics as modern established discipline was the definition of media categories and disciplines in order to support ‘efficient’ ways of expression. The debate between Gotthold Lessing and Charles Batteux in the 18th century, and later on the propositions of artists and critics in the beginning of the 20th century, have all emphasized the need of a certain ‘aesthetic efficiency’ of artistic production. This aesthetic ‘efficiency’, a term of economical ascendency, was to be achieved by taking into account the limitations of materials used by different forms of expressions and the sensorial channels they were addressing.The present paper questions the notions of ‘media efficiency’, ‘economy of attention’ and ‘media ecology’ through an intermedia research based on a series of experiments with edible materials, conducted during a workshop on textile interactions in the frame of ArcInTex Conference at the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås in April 2016. The paper suggests that the present intermediality researches are the signs of a new paradigm that tries to exceed the modern industrial affordances schemas.