One Bite One Bird - This is the publication I submitted for ISTD assessment and was awarded ISTD Membership with Merit.
I first came across the ortolan bunting also know as ortolan from an article detailing the last meal of former French President François Mitterrand. For his last meal on this Earth, he decided to gorge himself on two ortolans. After consumption, Mitterrand refused to eat anything afterward, dying eight days later after his meal.
The catching and cooking, but not the consumption of the ortolan are illegal through EU regulations. The ortolan is caught in the south of France. The bird when trapped goes through force-feeding tripling its body weight then is drowned alive in a special regional brandy called Armagnac believed to marinate the bird at the same time.
The bird is consumed whole, in one mouthful. Brain. Bones. innards.
This publication examines a traditional delicacy enjoyed by gourmands all around the world, which draws outrage from animal rights activists and disgust from people who happen across it. As public displays of eating the ortolan, are but wiped out. The culture surrounding the tiny songbird, that is no bigger than your thumb has become a behind closed doors experience.
A major component that has pushed the story of the ortolan from just another barbaric culinary dish to a world-renowned experience that any worthwhile gourmand dreams to experience. To the cult-like ritual of consuming the bird under a linen napkin to hide oneself from God, so that God cannot pay witness to this ‘sinful’ act. To the gluttonous act of eating the bird hole, in one mouthful, eating the Brains, Bones, Innards and everything in between.
The typographic napkin is to be used just like the napkins used by people when they eat ortolan, simulating and recreating the dinning experience. The napkin is to be unfolded and placed over the readers head, secluding the reader away from the rest of the people in the room. Then creating a capsule for yourself so that all of the aromas and tastes are captured in the space before you as to the same for all the typography in the miniature book.
As you consume the information of the book as do you consume the ortolan.
The overload to taste buds, with joyous flavors like hazelnut and buttery fat to the gory as when you chew done on the ortolans bones they cut the inside of your mouth, which means your blood joins the party, combining itself with the ortolan.
To the final factor, the psychological aspect of the experience as the person eating the ortolan is forced to face their morals and one's struggle through self-reflection on their mortality.
The miniature book that is inside the cocotte represents the cooked ortolan. This book is designed 100% edible. As the digital inks are made primarily with linseed oil, soybean oil, or a heavy petroleum distillate as the solvent (called the vehicle) combined with organic pigments. The pigments are made up of salts of multiring nitrogen-containing compounds (dyes), such as a yellow lake, peacock blue, phthalocyanine green, and diarylide orange. The Paper is made from Waffer printing paper and the cover which made to represent the oily skin of the cooked ortolan and also the strange aroma is produced from a recipe involving:
>Cupcake World Hazelnut food flavoring
>Dr. Oether Glycerine
>Dr. Oether Gelatine
>XO Armagnac
>Knoss Chicken Stock Pot
The person eating the ortolan is forced to face their own morals for devouring this tiny thing which arrived on their plate through means some would describe as barbaric cruel means and their own personal struggle through self-reflection on your own mortality.
Please check out part 2 of this publication.