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 or composted.
Space
↑
Hyperburgers can be installed in vacant spaces offered by socially engaged actors in the city, such as community spaces and cultural institu- tions. 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 is 1.600€. Plus utilites etc., it can sum up to 3K. If 1.500 people give 2€ per month with an upfront donation of 24 euro, the shop is paid for a year, 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 Arbeitsgruppe (AGs), for free. The community refunds 100% of their costs, such as ingredients and shipping, in state 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, for the spontaneous purchase can be added to the order by the maker, especially for non- perishable foods. Tipping the makers is part of the shop culture. Payments happen peer2peer digitally (through PayPal, bank apps or other wallets). Individual money boxes in the shop can provide an analog alternative.
Game
↑
Additionally, the shop rewards the maker with a stash of Đumplings, the shop currency. Đumplings are a tool for active participation. One can earn one Đumpling by providing food or by caring for the shop’s wellbeing (clerking, cleaning, sorting, joining cooking sessions, developing tools). The final price of an item consists of 2 parts: real money + 1Đumpling. A participant who wants to buy a jar of kimchi for 1€80c1Đ transfers the 1€80c to the kimchi maker and 1 Đumpling to the shop. Đumplings are not transferrable between participants. The easiest way to earn 1Đ is by wrapping 1 literal dumpling, the dish of filled dough common to every world culture. The dumplings are stored in the shop freezer-bank, and the ingredients' costs are absorbed by the shop budget. The most lucrative way to earn Đs is by putting food on the shelf. 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, dumpling parties forgive all debt, empty the freezer- bank and reset the game ("defrost the dumplings, defrost the accounts").
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. The formation of a club 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
↑
“Hyperburgers” has various layers of meaning. (1) The word “burgers” equates citizens to minced meat patties in the cogs of the capitalist state. The prefix “hyper” comes from the hyperobjects of Timothy Morton, the hypernormalization of Alexei Yurchak and Adam Curtis, and the hypertext, a.k.a. 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 forms of modern 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”. (2) Also, if you think about the function of a burger ( x amount of ingredients between 2 slices of brioche bread) the burger itself becomes a hyper-object. One could virtually employ all the ingredients of a supermarket to make one. Or as Grace Turtle put it during one of our walks: "It takes a village to make a burger." Hyperburgers is an open-source brand. Download the logo and the other assets from Hyperburgers.com and start a shop in your kiez.
People
↑
Who are "we"? Hyperburgers envisions an inclusive community in which participants are aware of their positioning. The term "burgers" ("citizen" in Dutch, German and old English) 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.
Error
↑
Hyperburgers opens a space for a communal queer practice. It doesn't expect people to eat 100% local, be totally zero waste. It cares to refrain from judgment and calls for diversity and an error friendly culture. However, participants pledge to be open for reciprocal feedback and to welcome positive change.
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 or composted.
Space
↑
Hyperburgers can be installed in vacant spaces offered by socially engaged actors in the city, such as community spaces and cultural institu- tions. 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 is 1.600€. Plus utilites etc., it can sum up to 3K. If 1.500 people give 2€ per month with an upfront donation of 24 euro, the shop is paid for a year, 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 Arbeitsgruppe (AGs), for free. The community refunds 100% of their costs, such as ingredients and shipping, in state 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, for the spontaneous purchase can be added to the order by the maker, especially for non- perishable foods. Tipping the makers is part of the shop culture. Payments happen peer2peer digitally (through PayPal, bank apps or other wallets). Individual money boxes in the shop can provide an analog alternative.
Game
↑
Additionally, the shop rewards the maker with a stash of Đumplings, the shop currency. Đumplings are a tool for active participation. One can earn one Đumpling by providing food or by caring for the shop’s wellbeing (clerking, cleaning, sorting, joining cooking sessions, developing tools). The final price of an item consists of 2 parts: real money + 1Đumpling. A participant who wants to buy a jar of kimchi for 1€80c1Đ transfers the 1€80c to the kimchi maker and 1 Đumpling to the shop. Đumplings are not transferrable between participants. The easiest way to earn 1Đ is by wrapping 1 literal dumpling, the dish of filled dough common to every world culture. The dumplings are stored in the shop freezer-bank, and the ingredients' costs are absorbed by the shop budget. The most lucrative way to earn Đs is by putting food on the shelf. 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, dumpling parties forgive all debt, empty the freezer- bank and reset the game ("defrost the dumplings, defrost the accounts").
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. The formation of a club 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
↑
“Hyperburgers” has various layers of meaning. (1) The word “burgers” equates citizens to minced meat patties in the cogs of the capitalist state. The prefix “hyper” comes from the hyperobjects of Timothy Morton, the hypernormalization of Alexei Yurchak and Adam Curtis, and the hypertext, a.k.a. 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 forms of modern 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”. (2) Also, if you think about the function of a burger ( x amount of ingredients between 2 slices of brioche bread) the burger itself becomes a hyper-object. One could virtually employ all the ingredients of a supermarket to make one. Or as Grace Turtle put it during one of our walks: "It takes a village to make a burger." Hyperburgers is an open-source brand. Download the logo and the other assets from Hyperburgers.com and start a shop in your kiez.
People
↑
Who are "we"? Hyperburgers envisions an inclusive community in which participants are aware of their positioning. The term "burgers" ("citizen" in Dutch, German and old English) 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.
Error
↑
Hyperburgers opens a space for a communal queer practice. It doesn't expect people to eat 100% local, be totally zero waste. It cares to refrain from judgment and calls for diversity 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!