Abstract

Sharing food has always been a way to connect with other individuals, to represent oneself to others, to express your community to other communities, and in most cases, to pass down knowledge from generation to generation. You only need to have Wi-Fi on your phone to be connected to your home country with technology. This research-creation project addresses the interconnected areas of food studies, networked publics on Instagram and living through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through Smallest Narrative Units (Heinz Emingholz) the non-linear animated series entitled Snacks explores how individual Instagram users, that work within the food industry, discuss their love of food and their lived experience of a global pandemic. Both topics: food and the pandemic provide simultaneous paths to discussions of identity, representation, migration, community, care and security. Using research-creation, Loveless’s concept polydisciplinamory, online surveys, interviews and animation, I was able to address intersecting themes mentioned regarding food during a time of global crisis. The central claim of this work is that food stirs up personal and communal reflections, fosters a sense of community and provides a unifying common ground. This project resulted in an Instagram series of twelve animated episodes surrounding topics about food. Snacks: Portraits of a Global Pandemic makes a significant contribution by enriching the discussion of portraying food in a global pandemic, both in the series and in its development. This project also contributes to platform studies and animation studies by creating a non-linear non-fiction series for Instagram.