We wanted to work some magic. To open a portal, a window through which we could connect with the lives of others, where distance was no object. Working with our US collaborator Asad Ali Jafri (Space Shift Collective), Mohammed Ali (Soul City Arts) and I recently brought together two communities that might otherwise never have met, being thousands of miles apart in Chicago and Birmingham, for a singular experience of immersive dining, conversation, and mutual learning – all in real time.

The result was our Magic Table. Re-purposing a recording studio in Chicago and Soul City Arts’ Port Hope warehouse in the UK, we dusted off the live streaming technology we thought we had left behind with the COVID pandemic and took it to new levels. This was no functional live link-up between sterile corporate meeting spaces or university seminar rooms – and neither was it an awkward Zoom call. The ambience created and the choice of the powerfully connective topic of food – and this is my conviction – went a long way to making a qualitative shift the in the kind of conversations we had.

In the two beautifully lit spaces, immersed in ambient sound, screens and projections were used to create the captivating illusion of one long, single dining table spanning an ocean, where diners in both locations could share food and conversation as if seated together. In this virtually unified setting, two guest chefs, Munayam and Maryam Khan (no relation) recreated each other’s dishes and offered live cooking demonstrations from the end of the table. We then ate together, exchanged thoughts, feelings and stories awoken by the memories of food and cooking. Each sharing, each story told unlocked the next and paved the way to a growing intimacy, which came about despite the distance. Diners were able to show vulnerability, sharing memories of family, love, loss, and bereavement across two continents. The experience testified to the affective power of art to forge bonds and encourage sharing at the deepest level. Wherever in the world we might be.

The event’s original title, ‘Diasporic Dialogue: A Global Dining Experience’, was overwritten by the new experience we created – now the magic table was at the centre of the concept and is in the title of the short film chronicling the event.

It marks the first chapter in a sequence of events I am helping Soul City Arts to run, funded by Warwick University’s Place Based Research Fund, and designed to find innovative new ways of using their creative space to engage new audiences and do so in new ways. Further chapters will follow. I will document them here and, eventually, a longer film and a journal article will follow as we reflect critically on our work. For now, though, watch our film and join us at the magic table.