Hyperburgers
Inconvenience Store
Version 2.2
Food
↑
Products can be self-supplied, such as olive oil, honey, walnuts, oranges or potatoes from a known small producer. Self-processed in the shop, such as oatmilk or ghee – the oats and the butter could be purchased in a regular supemarket until a better source arises. Self-farmed and grown, such as the backyard sage, or privately owned chicken’s eggs. Self-rescued, such as the fridge leftovers, the friendly bakery’s unsold bread.
Waste
↑
Food packaging such as jars, bottles, plastic containers, paper bags, tupperwares, can be collected, cleaned and reused. Organic waste can be collected for stock, fermented or composted. Leftover food can be processed or re-distributed for free, in the tradition of food banks and community fridges.
Space
↑
Hyperburgers can be installed in vacant spaces offered by socially engaged actors in the city, such as community spaces and cultural institutions. Alternatively, a shop could be rented through a crowdfund. E.g: Neukölln has 320K inhabitants. In 2024 the rent of a 86,5 sqm shop in Bürknerstraße was 1.600€. Plus utilites etc., it can sum up to 3K. If 1.500 people give 2€ per month with a automatic SEPA bank transfer, the shop can keep the lights on, and a community forms before it has even opened yet. Every month, donors can visit and reclaim a coffee. To them, it repays the 2 euro. To the shop, the coffee probably costs around 10c and is absorbed in the year budget.
Money
↑
Active participants (makers) bring and process their product in the shop individually or in Arbeitsgruppen (AGs), for free. For free means both ways, as in, they can use the space for free and they don't receive a payment. The community of customers of their food refunds 100% of their costs, such as ingredients and shipping, in fiat currency (€, $, £, etc). The payment happens upfront with a collective order or on the spot when purchasing the item. Collective pre-ordering is the safer way. An extra amount of food, for the spontaneous purchase can be added to the order by the maker, especially for non-perishable foods. Tipping the Maker 10-15% Berlin style is part of the shop culture. Payments happen p2p digitally, through PayPal, bank apps or other wallets. Obviously ethical, dWeb options are preferrable. Individual money boxes installed like mailboxes can provide an analog alternative to stick to cash.
Game
↑
Additionally, the shop rewards the Maker with a stash of Đumplings. Đumplings are karma points, a credit tool for active participation. Participants can earn Đumplings by providing food or by caring for the shop’s wellbeing, such as cooking, clerking, cleaning, sorting. The final price tag on an item consists of 2 parts: fiat money (€,£,$) + Đumplings. A participant who wants to buy a jar of kimchi for 2€1Đ transfers the 2€ to the kimchi maker and 1 Đumpling to the shop. Đumplings are not transferrable between participants. They are added and lowered through the Hyperburgers platform, like in a videogame.
The easiest way to earn 1Đ is by wrapping 1 literal dumpling, the dish of filled dough common to every world culture. Every region can choose the name of their own dumpling variation, such as Knödel, Raviolo, Jiaozi. The system stays the same. A negative Đumpling balance on the account is part of the game and how the Đumpling economy starts. Playful debt regulation keeps the ball rolling: a negative account can be frozen. Eventually, seasonal parties can be organized to clear all debt.
Tools
↑
Hyperburgers are made of shelves, sinks and fridges, processors, dishwashers. A HB (short for Hyperburgers) can start with a shared water filter in the condo’s groundfloor, self-built of collectively purchased. It's on the participants to choose equipment wisely, opting to recycle, DIY, or buy new energy-saving items as needed. Sometimes, they will repurpose an old kneading machine from a closed bakery; other times, they'll choose to acquire a new A+ fridge.
Hygiene
↑
The kitchen must meet the hygienic standards set by the local health authorities, such as HACCP. The formation of an association can help navigate food safety restrictions and manage liability issues. Participants must design and implement standard hygienic protocols and attend food safety workshops prior to getting involved in the food handling and processing.
Brand
↑
The word “burgers” ("citizen" in Dutch, German and old English) equates city residents to minced meat patties in the cogs of the capitalist state. The term deliberately means here all the people of a city, despite their legal status. At the same time, HB recognizes the privilege of holding state citizenship and proposes to harness it for a mutualistic social benefit.
The prefix “hyper” comes from the hyperobjects of Timothy Morton and the hypernormalization of Alexei Yurchak and Adam Curtis, but also from the hypertext, as in the most revolutionary tool of our time: the Internet. The great hyperobject Global Supply Chain doesn’t spare anyone. We are engulfed in it. We are it. Microplastics flow in our veins, and we enable neo-colonial slavery every day with our zombie-purchases. We know it and yet, we are overwhelmed and numbed by it, hypernormalized in the face of imminent system collapse. If we can accept the shame of being part of the problem, if we can “stay with the trouble” (Haraway 2016), we can be hyper in the internet sense, as in, connected to each other in a peer-2-peer way. Or better, in a "peers-4- peers" way (p4p unconference at Offline, Berlin 2024), bringing to life the proposal of "response-ability" (Haraway and Kenney, 2013): "that cultivation through which we render each other capable, that cultivation of the capacity to respond”. Also, if you think about the function of a burger: x amount of ingredients between 2 slices of brioche bread, the burger itself reveals itself as the exquisite hyperobject. One could virtually employ all the ingredients of a supermarket to make one. Or as friend and colleague Grace Turtle put it during one of our walks: "It takes a village to make a burger." Hyperburgers is an open-source brand. Send me an email to get the assets to start a shop in your territory.
Fail Forward
↑
Hyperburgers is a queer practice. It advances with a trial and error approach through prototyping and experimentation. Also, it doesn't expect people to eat 100% local nor to be zero waste or entirely vegan – though veganism holds a centerpiece. The project wishes to hold space for complexity and an error friendly culture. However, participants pledge to be open for reciprocal feedback and to welcome positive change.
Hyperburgers
Inconvenience Store
Version 2.2
Food
↑
Products can be self-supplied, such as olive oil, honey, walnuts, oranges or potatoes from a known small producer. Self-processed in the shop, such as oatmilk or ghee – the oats and the butter could be purchased in a regular supemarket until a better source arises. Self-farmed and grown, such as the backyard sage, or privately owned chicken’s eggs. Self-rescued, such as the fridge leftovers, the friendly bakery’s unsold bread.
Waste
↑
Food packaging such as jars, bottles, plastic containers, paper bags, tupperwares, can be collected, cleaned and reused. Organic waste can be collected for stock, fermented or composted. Leftover food can be processed or re-distributed for free, in the tradition of food banks and community fridges.
Space
↑
Hyperburgers can be installed in vacant spaces offered by socially engaged actors in the city, such as community spaces and cultural institutions. Alternatively, a shop could be rented through a crowdfund. E.g: Neukölln has 320K inhabitants. In 2024 the rent of a 86,5 sqm shop in Bürknerstraße was 1.600€. Plus utilites etc., it can sum up to 3K. If 1.500 people give 2€ per month with a automatic SEPA bank transfer, the shop can keep the lights on, and a community forms before it has even opened yet. Every month, donors can visit and reclaim a coffee. To them, it repays the 2 euro. To the shop, the coffee probably costs around 10c and is absorbed in the year budget.
Money
↑
Active participants (makers) bring and process their product in the shop individually or in Arbeitsgruppen (AGs), for free. For free means both ways, as in, they can use the space for free and they don't receive a payment. The community of customers of their food refunds 100% of their costs, such as ingredients and shipping, in fiat currency (€, $, £, etc). The payment happens upfront with a collective order or on the spot when purchasing the item. Collective pre-ordering is the safer way. An extra amount of food, for the spontaneous purchase can be added to the order by the maker, especially for non-perishable foods. Tipping the Maker 10-15% Berlin style is part of the shop culture. Payments happen p2p digitally, through PayPal, bank apps or other wallets. Obviously ethical, dWeb options are preferrable. Individual money boxes installed like mailboxes can provide an analog alternative to stick to cash.
Game
↑
Additionally, the shop rewards the Maker with a stash of Đumplings. Đumplings are karma points, a credit tool for active participation. Participants can earn Đumplings by providing food or by caring for the shop’s wellbeing, such as cooking, clerking, cleaning, sorting. The final price tag on an item consists of 2 parts: fiat money (€,£,$) + Đumplings. A participant who wants to buy a jar of kimchi for 2€1Đ transfers the 2€ to the kimchi maker and 1 Đumpling to the shop. Đumplings are not transferrable between participants. They are added and lowered through the Hyperburgers platform, like in a videogame.
The easiest way to earn 1Đ is by wrapping 1 literal dumpling, the dish of filled dough common to every world culture. Every region can choose the name of their own dumpling variation, such as Knödel, Raviolo, Jiaozi. The system stays the same. A negative Đumpling balance on the account is part of the game and how the Đumpling economy starts. Playful debt regulation keeps the ball rolling: a negative account can be frozen. Eventually, seasonal parties can be organized to clear all debt.
Tools
↑
Hyperburgers are made of shelves, sinks and fridges, processors, dishwashers. A HB (short for Hyperburgers) can start with a shared water filter in the condo’s groundfloor, self-built of collectively purchased. It's on the participants to choose equipment wisely, opting to recycle, DIY, or buy new energy-saving items as needed. Sometimes, they will repurpose an old kneading machine from a closed bakery; other times, they'll choose to acquire a new A+ fridge.
Hygiene
↑
The kitchen must meet the hygienic standards set by the local health authorities, such as HACCP. The formation of an association can help navigate food safety restrictions and manage liability issues. Participants must design and implement standard hygienic protocols and attend food safety workshops prior to getting involved in the food handling and processing.
Brand
↑
The word “burgers” ("citizen" in Dutch, German and old English) equates city residents to minced meat patties in the cogs of the capitalist state. The term deliberately means here all the people of a city, despite their legal status. At the same time, HB recognizes the privilege of holding state citizenship and proposes to harness it for a mutualistic social benefit.
The prefix “hyper” comes from the hyperobjects of Timothy Morton and the hypernormalization of Alexei Yurchak and Adam Curtis, but also from the hypertext, as in the most revolutionary tool of our time: the Internet. The great hyperobject Global Supply Chain doesn’t spare anyone. We are engulfed in it. We are it. Microplastics flow in our veins, and we enable neo-colonial slavery every day with our zombie-purchases. We know it and yet, we are overwhelmed and numbed by it, hypernormalized in the face of imminent system collapse. If we can accept the shame of being part of the problem, if we can “stay with the trouble” (Haraway 2016), we can be hyper in the internet sense, as in, connected to each other in a peer-2-peer way. Or better, in a "peers-4- peers" way (p4p unconference at Offline, Berlin 2024), bringing to life the proposal of "response-ability" (Haraway and Kenney, 2013): "that cultivation through which we render each other capable, that cultivation of the capacity to respond”. Also, if you think about the function of a burger: x amount of ingredients between 2 slices of brioche bread, the burger itself reveals itself as the exquisite hyperobject. One could virtually employ all the ingredients of a supermarket to make one. Or as friend and colleague Grace Turtle put it during one of our walks: "It takes a village to make a burger." Hyperburgers is an open-source brand. Send me an email to get the assets to start a shop in your territory.
Fail Forward
↑
Hyperburgers is a queer practice. It advances with a trial and error approach through prototyping and experimentation. Also, it doesn't expect people to eat 100% local nor to be zero waste or entirely vegan – though veganism holds a centerpiece. The project wishes to hold space for complexity and an error friendly culture. However, participants pledge to be open for reciprocal feedback and to welcome positive change.
Hyperburgers is a social design project started by Francesca Tambussi. It aims to become a free tool for citizens to make their own Consumers Lab. Wanna start one or join me in the making? Send me an email.
Wanna see where the Hyperburgers wind blows? Updates are mostly posted on Instagram. A recap of the year is sent with the Riseup newsletter, and news about the upcoming Berlin project are on Telegram!
Hyperburgers is a social design project started by Francesca Tambussi. It aims to become a free tool for citizens to make their own Consumers Lab. Wanna start one or join me in the making? Send me an email.
Wanna see where the Hyperburgers wind blows? Updates are mostly posted on Instagram. A recap of the year is sent with the Riseup newsletter, and news about the upcoming Berlin project are on Telegram!