JANET JACOB
Dr. Jignesh Khakhar
janet_j@nid.edu
Mura is a speculative design inquiry into the growing disconnect between humans and their food in an era of hyper-efficiency. It imagines a near-future where meals are nutritionally complete but emotionally flat, reduced to sterile blocks and seamless bites. In this context, Mura emerges as a counter-narrative; a tactile, edible medium designed to reawaken presence, memory, and ritual through the act of eating. Formed from rice-based substrates, Mura acts as an interface that responds to warmth, moisture, and stillness. Nestled between the base cutlery and the consumption itself, Mura transforms this intermediary space into a ritual one mediated by attentiveness rather than utility. Through the speculative properties of rice such as absorptive memory and material malleability. Mura becomes a shape-shifter of meaning, guiding the eater into a more embodied engagement with food. It resists the speed of modern consumption, inviting a return to slowness, texture, and emotional connection.