Living Maps May Meet up (via Zoom)
Wed 6th May, 7pm (GMT)
Mapping milk rounds and the geographies of drink
For the next (online) Living Maps Network Meet Up we will be looking at the cultural geographies of drink production and delivery with two guest speakers: photographer
and doctoral student Maxine Beuret who has been mapping the history of milk rounds by joining milk deliverers on their milk floats and Kathrin Böhm, artist and founder of Company Drinks, a Barking and Dagenham based community drinks company. The evening will
include the screening of two short films.
The renewed demand for milk and grocery delivery and the regional need for hop and fruit pickers following Brexit and COVID 19 should make for a particularly thought-provoking evening.
About our guest speakers:
Kathrin Böhm from Company Drinks
Company Drinks is a Barking and Dagenham based community drinks company which brings people together to pick, process and produce drinks in east London, linking the history of East Londoners ‘going hop picking’ to a new enterprise.
They run a full drinks production cycle of growing, picking, processing, branding, bottling, trading and reinvesting. Company Drinks is combining the east London rural and agricultural heritage with a new Community Economy model, to make and support community
by making, trading and enjoying drinks together.
Kathrin will introduce two films:
About Company Drinks (2019) -
A 5 minute film explaining their community economy model commissioned by the V&A for FOOD: Bigger than the Plate.
Foreign Pickers (2016) -
A 22min documentary comparing the “hopping days” from the past with current practices of fruit picking in Kent, commissioned by Delfina Foundation.
Maxine Beuret, Kingston University
Working in collaboration with the milk delivery industry, Maxine’s research combines creative practice with sensory and public ethnography, design history and phenomenology. This methodology is designed to represent cultural heritage
in the commonplace, with a specific focus on dairies and their door-step milk delivery service with electric milk floats.
Working with milkman Colin Chesnaye at Parker Dairies in East London, Maxine produced a map combining a simplified ordinance survey street map with photography, graphics and text to give a clear impression of the size and look of his milk round. She will talk
through how she developed the map and the insights gained from the process.
As usual, discussion and debate is encouraged. BYO pizza and
beer (or milk!). This online session is free of charge.