The Mobile Food Lab awarded with a Core77 Design Award

“Occupy North,” conceived during “The Arctic Circle” art residency in October 2015, is a bold artistic initiative responding to the political tensions surrounding Arctic territorial claims. In two transformative phases, the project challenges traditional notions of nationhood and territory.

The symbolic act of planting a flag physically stakes a claim in
the Arctic, challenging geopolitical norms. This performative gesture is complemented by a strategic legal pursuit through the United Nations and the Norwegian government, thrusting the project beyond art into international governance.

Documented through photography, video, and visual artifacts, the legacy of “Occupy North” “Occupy North” aims
to reshape narratives, question power structures, and prompt
conversations about the environmental impact of political decisions.

On my way from Europe back to Maui via New York, my friend Emily Conrad asked me to join her team at Tessellate Studio helping with a “little” project Called the The Mobile Food Lab.

The Mobile Food Lab (MFL) is an entirely customized school bus outfitted as a brightly lit greenhouse, exhibit space, and lab space to teach kids about healthy eating; all within 300 square feet of moveable space. This “food truck” commissioned by the REED Foundationis bait for hooking students K-8 on science, art, and better eating habits. The experiential mobile classroom travels to underserved communities to teach kids that healthy food can be grown and enjoyed everywhere, and to explain how these plants nourish our minds and bodies. The MFL’s primary missions are to help children develop a healthy connection to food by harnessing their innate curiosity through a multisensory experience of smell, sight, touch, and taste. The MFL uses food as the medium to teach a curriculum of science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM).

I end up sculpting the “nest,” built with ropes and sailing knot. The project was not so little and has now won a Core77 Design Awards ! Soooo happy to share this award and experience with a friend like Emily with whom I share so much of my life both personally and professionally. To see one work being enjoyed every day by the community is truly rewording to any creative mind.

I’m exited excited to celebrate with Tessellate this achievement.

Design Team:

Emily Conrad, Project and Experience Lead.
Joe Karadin, Physical Design Lead.
Tucker Viemeister, Creative Director.
Sadie Coughlin-Prego, Experience Design and Web Development.
Matt Weisgerber, Physical Design. Tiansen Wu, Visual Designer.
Maia Marinelli, Artist, sculptor and sailor who helped sculpt out the Nest.

Well done team! To the next one .

Learn more about Mobile Food Lab here:

https://www.mobilefoodlab.org/