Salmon: A Red Herring traces a detective story across industrial fish farms, grey shrimp fisheries, and red-tinged beehives to expose how colour manipulation in food systems reveals the full scale of environmental degradation.
About This Book
When Cooking Sections learned of a sparrow that had turned bright pink on the Isle of Skye, the duo began a forensic investigation into colour as ecological symptom. From fishermen in Mexico reporting grey shrimp, to beekeepers in Brooklyn harvesting red honey, to the blue fog and black snow surrounding the Nornickel factory in Norilsk, Russia, their findings map a world where industrial food production is rewriting the visible spectrum. Structured as a detective narrative, this book argues that aesthetic manipulation — the artificial pinking of farmed salmon, the dyeing of food ecosystems — is inseparable from the political economy of industrial farming. It became the basis for a Turner Prize-nominated exhibition at Tate Britain and launched an international campaign against salmon farming.
Key Features
- 176 pages of investigative narrative, visual documentation, and ecological case studies across multiple continents
- Forewords by Hannah Landecker, Bruno Latour, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and David Zilber
- Case studies include salmon farming and colour manipulation, grey shrimp in Mexico, red honey in Brooklyn, and industrial pollution in Norilsk, Russia
- Published by Spector, 2018
What You'll Discover
- How the artificial pigmentation of farmed salmon functions as both an economic instrument and a form of environmental deception
- The way industrial processes — from aquaculture to heavy manufacturing — are physically altering the colour of species, soils, and skies across the globe
- How design and artistic practice can function as tools of ecological accountability and public campaigning
- A model for thinking about colour theory not as aesthetic formalism but as a register of political and environmental conditions
About the Author
Cooking Sections is the London-based practice of Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe, working at the intersection of architecture, art, and food systems. Their work examines how spatial and economic structures shape what we eat and how we perceive the natural world. Their exhibition adapted from this book was nominated for the Turner Prize.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 176
- Dimensions: 7 x 10.8 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781735075006
- Publisher: Spector
- Publication Date: 2018
Perfect For: Architects, designers, and researchers working at the intersection of food systems, environmental politics, and spatial practice; readers interested in colour theory as cultural and ecological critique.