Part of “Where is the Meal?” Event series.
The urban terrain is increasingly being redefined through delivery services. Delivery services depend on unambiguous, clearly locatable addresses to deliver food. So far, addresses in the UK are mostly tied to buildings. But what if addresses become part of public space? How will public space be reconfigured if both raw ingredients as well as whole meals can be delivered anywhere? Are there restrictions to what can become an address?
How will it change public space and the meals people have in it if delivery services start to deliver to parks and benches, to streets and geolocated urban spaces? Will this have repercussions for how people eat and even have repercussions for the homes of people?
This event will include an attempt to create a meal for everyone attending from foods delivered to the place of the event, a non-address on the Thames beach.
Date & Location:
23th May 2024, 6-9pm
Gabriel’s Pier, SE1 9PP, Upper Ground, London
Note this is directly on the River Thames Beach. See map
Please Note:
This event is outdoor and takes place on the Thames shore. So, even in good weather, it may be chilly and windy. Come in waterproof shoes and warm, windproof clothing.
There are no seats provided. There will be two picnic blankets, but you may want to bring your own or a camping seat.
Food will be vegan and there will be gluten-free options.
Register
Please book a Free ticket for the event via the TicketSource event page.
Guests

Dr Regan Koch is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, Director of the City Centre at Queen Mary, University of London. He defines himself and his work as:
I’m an urban and cultural geographer fascinated by public life in cities. My interests include varied forms of collective culture and sociality, and questions of how urban environments can be organised to help us live together in more mutually beneficial ways. Focused on contemporary London and cities across the U.S., as well as a burgeoning interest in Taiwan and China, my research to date has centred on three themes:
- Urban publicness. Public space has been a longstanding concern in critical urban scholarship, and my work has sought re-animate this field of study. This includes advocating for careful attention to how different spaces of public life are put together and to the affects that different kinds of materiality, infrastructure, modes of inhabitation, and forms of regulation have in making urban spaces what they are. I am also interested on-going, everyday forms of negotiation about what is fair and appropriate for living together in a pluralistic society.
- Urban sociality and collective culture. Cities are full of new cultural trends and innovations that overlap with, and sometimes go against, more established ways of living together – new ways of making a living, eating and drinking, socialising, getting from A to B, and meeting new people, to name just a few. By examining different forms of social interaction, novel kinds of spaces and practices, and the efforts of entrepreneurs and innovators, I’m curious to explore possibilities for living together better in cities.
- Representing and imagining cities. Parallel to my interest in urban public life is a concern with popular and academic discourse about cities and neighbourhoods. This includes examining how we understand and portray processes of urban change, new developments and trends, and the lifestyles and culture of different kinds of urban dwellers. In particular, I am concerned with understanding the work that different kinds of representation do and the geographical imaginations they enable.

Viktor Bedö is a designer and researcher investigating bodies, technologies, and urban futures. He has a background in philosophy (PhD, Humboldt University Berlin/University of Pécs), media studies and art history and 20 years of experience in critical reflection, playful prototyping, foresight and speculative design across academia and industry.
He is currently interested in crafting imaginaries of just and regenerative urban infrastructures, enabling participative machine learning and exploring designerly strategies of engaging with more-than-human perspectives.
Since 2021, Viktor has been the principal investigator of the SNSF-funded project Scaling Material Urban Commons, investigating the algorithmic commoning of rescued food, sensing kitchens and bodies, and citizen machine teaching.
Viktor is a member of the Kitchen Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. He was a founding member of the Berlin-based art collective Invisible Playground and founder of the urban street game laboratory Tacit Dimension. His design work was featured by Metropolis Festival Copenhagen and Festival of Future Nows at Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, among others.
He is a Visiting Professor at IXDM, HGK Basel, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland and teaches the MA Experimental Design at IXDM.
More info
This event is part of “Where is the Meal? A Roving and Participatory Event Series on Food, Place and Communities. “Where is the Meal? is a series of five events responding to the question of how meals relate to place, and its cultural, political, technological and legal conditions. Each event is comprised of a meal for all participants, designed collaboratively by the event organisers and two invited guests at different places in London. Each individual event serves to both perform the topic of the meal, and engage the guests and audience into a relevant discussion.