Coffee Table

In the interactive installation Coffee Table (in German ‘Kaffeekränzchen’), the legacy of gendered porcelain collecting, and the different functions and meaning of this in women’s lives, was explored, while also engaging with themes of art, science and technology.

The installation consisted of a set of porcelain vessels and plates arranged on a circular wooden table, surrounded by a series of interconnected circuits and wires. The use of circuits and wires in the installation served as a metaphor for the interconnectedness of historical legacies, colonial histories (of gold mining) and contemporary technologies (which use gold in computer chips). And the use of porcelain vessels and plates alluded to the history of oppression and the global trade in luxury goods.

The installation represented an interactive circuit embroidered in a tablecloth with conductive textiles. The circuit used four open source hardware boards (Adafruit Audio FX Sound) that triggered sounds whenever a button was switched on. The buttons were triggered by used porcelain coffee cups with gold lustre. Gold has been urban mined as a conductive material that naturally establishes electric conductivity.

The tablecloth worked as an instrument/performative tool: whenever one of the performers poured the coffee, ‘drunk’ the coffee or added sugar, a different sound was triggered. Sounds were collected from the natural coffee-drinking environment, but also from important texts that tackle the topic of coffee, gold and porcelain as precious materials mined in the Global South and brought to the Global North through colonialism and neo-colonialism.

The Coffee Table installation project is intricately connected to the principles of urban mining, upcycling and new materialism. Upcycling, a form of recycling, involves repurposing discarded or waste materials into new products that have higher value and functionality.

The use of conductive gold porcelain cups in the installation is a prime example of upcycling and new materialism. Gold, a precious metal, is usually associated with jewellery or high-value financial transactions, as well as a safe investment.

The installation was first presented in combination with a performative act during the Mz* Baltazar’s Laboratory Salon of Open Secrets exhibition in 2022 at Kunstraum pro arte in Hallein, Austria; and then in 2023 at the Artistic Ceramics Biennial in Aveiro, Portugal. In the former, artists Patrícia J. Reis and Stefanie Wuschitz teamed up with artist–performers Anna Watzinger and Olivia Jaques (all active members of Mz* Baltazar’s Laboratory collective) in a 15-minute performance, which started with all of the artists enacting coffee drinking as a female-connoted ritual while sitting in silence around the table. At minute 5, a shattering sound was triggered on the tablecloth as a clue for Watzinger and Jaques to take over and expand the performance to the audience, adding elements such as cleaning supplies, mirrors and ultimately a cake.

In the second performance – in Portugal – Reis and Wuschitz teamed up with local performers Ana Rita Carvalho and Silvia Amado in a 22-minute act, in which the interactive triggered sounds were added to a previously recorded main soundtrack containing the testimonies of our international project collaborators on the topic of ethical hardware, from their specific perspective.