The Invisible Lunch Discussions was a three-hour-long conversation with New Yorkers about affordable housing and living conditions in New York City. It took place over shared food at a 100-foot-long table on Rivington Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
During the discussions, New York residents sat at the table, shared food and exchanged experiences with strangers. Everyone was an expert at our symposium. We purposely avoided the workshop model, a form of discussion that is solution-oriented by default. Passers-by simply talked to each other. We laid out questions on the table to spark thoughts about personal experiences, self-organization, and community support in a city where, after two decades of global investment and profit-driven development, it is still difficult to secure affordable housing and reasonable living conditions.
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PROJECT PROPOSAL
Title: The Invisible Lunch Discussions
A research and on-site project, by the Design for the Living World class, within the Ideas City Festival by the invitation of the New Museum
Dates: May 20 – June 2nd, 2015.
Location: Rivington Street, NY.
Students: Finn Brüggemann, Maria Christou, Francisca Concha, Johanna Padge, Amalia Ruiz-Larrea, William Schwartz and Nuriye Tohermes.
The Class of the Design for the Living World in collaboration with: About Time garden, MFTA (Materials for the Arts), NOCD-NY – (Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts New York), RatRod Design Studios, Sawkill Lumber and residents of NYC.
Supported by: the New Museum New York, Embassy of Republic of Slovenia Washington and Hochschule für bildende Künste (HFBK) Hamburg
Two ways to Open a Melon
Video by Design for the Living World
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The Invisible Lunch Discussions in time
Stop-motion video by Francisca Concha
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
We laid out questions on the table to spark thoughts about personal experiences, self-organization, and community support in a city where, after two decades of global investment and profit-driven development, it is still difficult to secure affordable housing and reasonable living conditions.
IN THE MEDIA
The Invisible Lunch Discussions on vice.com by
Rachel Signer: Artist Marjetica Potrč’s ‘The Invisible Lunch’ Attempts to Reenvision Public Space, June 12, 2015
INITIATIVES AND ORGANIZATIONS NYC – information by the New Museum
INITIATIVES AND ORGANIZATIONS NYC – various
TEXTS
RESEARCH MATERIAL
Design for the Living World, HFBK 
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