The HumanCoffee Shop

Speakers: Jes Hooper, Saija Kassinen and Meri Linna

Did you know that the world’s most expensive coffee is produced through the digestive tract of an animal? Now imagine that animal is human.

Welcome to a bold and provocative session that introduces the world’s first and only human-digested coffee. Blending art, anthropology and biological inquiry, our event is part of a project inviting coffee lovers, critical thinkers and the curious into a mind-bending exploration of consumption, ethics and embodiment.

Developed through a transdisciplinary collaboration between independent art duo Harrie Liveart from Finland and multispecies ethnographer Jes Hooper of the University of York, The HumanCoffee Shop draws inspiration from the controversial civet coffee industry.

The project critically examines the ethics of bodily mechanisation and faecal commodification as experienced by Asian palm civets (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), producers of what is often proclaimed ‘the most famous coffee in the world’. By turning this logic inward, towards the human body, the project asks urgent questions about exploitation, desire and the limits of consumption.

Awaken the senses.
Digest the discourse.
Percolate for the future.

Image credit: Art duo Harrie Liveart

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Host or Publisher York Festival of Ideas