DiY Quinine

︎︎︎ Work developed in collaboration w/ Mike Thompson — Produced for the Symposium Doing Sounding Exchanging Thinking: The Auditory Experience of the Social (DSET) — Foundation B.A.D. (Rotterdam, NL)

Much like the public dissections that took place at anatomical theatres in the mid-eighteenth century, research theatre employs the process of disassembly (deconstruction) and observation to examine the inner structures, functions and relationships of components that determine how we consume different substances, like a classic Gin &Tonic cocktail.

Throughout the event, tonic water was created from Cinchona bark, step-by-step, through the use of botanicals and other ingredients that blur the borders between recreational and medicinal drinks.

As the bar opened for “consultations”, people were invited to order a tonic infused drink, made from the bark of the Cinchona tree, in exchange for a conversation on food, its relation to health and other tales of biopiracy.

︎︎︎  Storage and ‘kina’ samples at the National Herbarium of The Netherlands