Discussion:     Domesticity and Food in Our Nomadic Lifestyles

Tour:                 Stop & Shop: A Grocery Store and Its Technological Goals
 

6:00     Meet at Media Lab and travel to Stop & Shop
6:45     Tour of Stop & Shop’s Hingham technology testbed
                 Curt Avallone, Director of New Ventures, Royal Ahold NV
7:45     Dinner and Discussion
                 Tosca Restaurant
9:45     Return to Media Lab

Nomadicity and Domesticity

The nomadic lifestyle that is somewhat characteristic of other mammals has a basis in our lifestyles as well. We commute more than 30 minutes each way to work. We eat more than 20% of our food in cars and spend more than 60% of our food budget on meals that aren’t consumed at home. We support our relationships with laptops and cell phones that give us the intimacy of our relationships from anywhere and at anytime. Many of us also spend more than a few days a month living in hotels.

In this meeting, we will explore the counter-balances of technology that allow us to eat and live comfortably with a minimum of fixed places in our home and family. We value and enjoy creating nests. We desire homes that allow us to be in one place and to enjoy what technology can offer by creating a high-quality home kitchen and other technological experiences.

Our identity is found through relationships not places.  Still we build nests.  In this meeting we will discuss the changes to the technology we buy for home and travel that relate to what we formerly thought of as homemaking. As we consider the mobile lifestyles of today, the food is different; the way we prepare it is different; and the way we entertain around food is different.