Digesting Data is a collaboration between Umeå University Institute of Design’s Sympoietic Research Collaboratory in Sweden and the Ecology & Action Lab of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Hungary.
By Danielle Wilde, Arctic Six Chair in Arctic Food Citizenship, Professor, Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University; Professor, Sustainability Transitions, Department of Business and Sustainability, University of Southern Denmark
Mary Karyda, Research Lead, Ecology & Action Lab, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Hungary
In May 2024, we held a pilot workshop called Eating Östersjön Data, uniting fishers, public authorities, chefs, and researchers to explore the disconnect between policy and the lived experiences of professional fishers in the Gulf of Bothnia. Over two days, the participants co-created and shared meals to represent fishers’ realities, using food to introduce new perspectives into the policy discussion.
Designing Data Narratives Through Food
The workshop was held at Umeå University School of Food, Nutrition and Culinary Sciences. Participants worked in mixed groups of fishers, public officials, chefs, and researchers. To begin, we introduced the notion of representing data in three-dimensional forms, using food to represent data, and the meal as an unfolding series of rituals and connections between diners and with food. Within the groups, the fishers then shared their perspectives on policy challenges, and participants co-created a tapas plate to communicate the fishers’ narratives. The tapas served as a “taster” for the method. Following a critically engaged tapas break, each group designed a meal to be prepared and shared the next day, leveraging food’s cultural and sensory dimensions to spark dialogue around the fishers’ challenges.
Fish or No-Fish Arancini
The first group addressed an 80% decline in fish catch over 40 years and dwindling consumer knowledge about seafood. To illustrate the challenge, they created arancini – 20% filled with fish, and 80% filled with umami mushrooms – served with salads in takeaway boxes featuring stories accessed after eating. Despite extensive culinary experience, the attendees struggled to identify the fish-filled arancini, highlighting the loss of knowledge about seafood qualities. Unfortunately, the take-away format limited deeper discussion on the fishers’ challenges, emphasizing the need for immersive dining to maximize impact.
Fine Dining with Grey Seals
The second group tackled growing conflicts with grey seals. The Gulf of Bothnia grey seal population has surged by 5% annually since the 2009 implementation of a European law that prohibits marketing seal products, except under limited cultural exceptions. For the Swedish fishers, this means damaged equipment, depleting stocks, and economic strain. In Finland, hunters are compensated for seal culling. With this example, rather than change the law, the Swedish fisher seek to change how it is interpreted at the national level.
This group designed a fine-dining experience for Västerbottensveckorna, an annual cultural event in Stockholm that highlights the North to regional, national, and international decision-makers. Supported by Susanne Jonsson, Sámi chef and editor of a fine-dining seal recipe book, the group created two mock seal dishes: tuna cooked in blood to mimic seal meat, served with tuna ceviche; and ice cream enriched to replicate seal milk’s high fat content. Dramatic elements, such as pouring beef blood at the table to symbolize fish massacres and sour cloudberry sauce on the ice cream to highlight seal pups’ deaths, elicited strong emotions. The performance sparked deep dialogue, with one official saying they learned more in one afternoon than in a decade of workshops. All participants expressed interest in future experiments.
Insights and Future Directions
Traditional policymaking often relies on static data and top-down processes, which fails to capture the richness of affected communities' lived experiences. In contrast, meals bridge divides, translating fishers’ experiences into sensory, performative expressions. Public officials gained fresh insights, as the dynamic shifted from confrontation to collaboration. While the takeaway meal lacked depth, the fine-dining experience used familiar rituals to make data emotionally impactful and spark meaningful conversations.
Using food as a proxy for data enables us to redefine data beyond scientific evidence, evoke experiential narratives, and create powerful interventions in sustainability and policy. By combining storytelling, performance, and sensory engagement, the meals illuminated fishers’ realities and inspired new connections. This approach opens new avenues for policy dialogue, offering an alternative to traditional processes that often fail to resonate with communities. It reimagines fishing as a web of connections and eating as a social, environmental, and political act, grounding policymaking in real-life experiences to co-construct new paths forward.
Through our collaboration, we explore data’s impact on futures. We want to know: Can we tell other stories to move forward differently? Can eating together better connect public authorities with food system actors’ lived experiences for more effective outcomes? To address these questions in ways that speak to and through the diverse stakeholders’ lived experiences, this work must be co-created.
Photo: Mattias Pettersson
