a clickbait protein shake: a nourishing multi-domain recipe by common accounts

Protein powder: A nutrition technology—with manifold applications—to actualize one’s own desires. Self-design aspires to an image: an idea to materialize. It requires a means, too, and for many, protein has become a principal agent toward the realization of the self. Studies indicate that 60 percent of North Americans actively seek to consume more protein today. The consumption of whey protein powder is increasingly driven by an awareness of the online and the dissemination of one’s own image in both virtual and IRL fora as projections of selfhood. Invoking notions of health and nutrition, the whey protein industry has stepped in largely to streamline our metabolic absorption of the nutrient environment for these and other ends. Protein deficiencies in the west, where growth in consumption has been steep, are extremely rare. Industry expansion has been made possible through the deliberate cultivation of appetite not for protein powder itself, but for its perceived physiological benefits. Muscle has become a site of intensification for the proteins that landscapes, factories, and desires yield, and in turn, they become synthetic as well. The agricultural landscapes that the  dairy industry structures to yield herd feed, raise cows, and extract milk exhibit symmetries with the human bodies that they transform. Each site—the territorial and the anatomical—has its constitutive regimens and diets, their built-up stores of nutrient rations, their furrowed channels, and sculptural topographies, and demonstrates an intensification driven by the notion of becoming and self-fulfilment. Soil, stomachs, farms, and fitness studios are stations for the bio-amplification of proteins in an atomized, multi-domain supply chain driven by self-design.

To be consumed
i) a protein shake, ii) protein YouTube content

Instruments required
A blender, athletic-coded sealable vessels, metal straws if the vessel does not have an incorporated spout or mouthpiece, and a television or laptop with WIFI connection and browser loaded to YouTube.

Recipe for protein shake
Go to a store that sells protein powder and identify a 100% whey-based powder in a canister of heroic proportions. The brand name should convey a sense of imminence, like Surge, or Drive, or Swell. The typeface must transmit ENERGY. The flavour should be vanilla or vanilla adjacent (like birthday cake, or vanilla-ice-cream coffee). Without prior experience with a particular powder, it is impossible to correlate flavour quality to the canister’s external presentation. A number of other ingredients in the shake will hedge against unfortunate tasting powders.

For each shake: In a blender, add one scoop (approx. 1/3 cup) of protein powder to 150mL of water and 100mL of unsweetened oat, pea, or coconut milk. Add ½ cup of frozen blueberries, and a small handful of raspberries. Add 1/3 cup of frozen pineapple for its anti-inflammatory properties. Add half a banana and a tablespoon of WOW Butter peanut butter substitute. Blend until the shake’s constituents have homogenized in colour and appearance. Decant into a re-sealable vessel and keep cool until consumed.

Recipe for protein YouTube content
In the search bar on the YouTube homepage, enter text as  follows: “Protein Powder” + “[An adjective or expression denoting deliciousness]” + “[An everyday location or space]”

For instance, “Protein Powder Yummy Bedroom” or “Protein Powder Tasty Gym.” Ignore the sponsored results at the top and scroll down to select a video that catches your eye. Your selection may be a ranking of sports nutrition brands, an informational video on natural proteins, or a recipe for protein-rich foods. Play one with the volume muted and consume your shake within viewing range of the video. Allow the video to transition automatically to the next, and the next, until your shake is consumed, at which point you may pause the video and close the browser window.

Miles Gertler is an artist and co-director of Common Accounts, an office for architectural inquiry that currently operates between Toronto and Madrid. His work in architecture, academia, and visual art examines self-design in virtual and material realms, and documents design intelligence that often passes under the radar of the discipline in areas like fitness, death, military logistics, and ritual. Gertler’s work and writing has been featured in Perspecta, e-flux, 032c, PIN-UP, Arquitectura Viva, Canadian Architect, Frame, Neo2, El Pais, The Cornell Journal of Architecture, The Globe and Mail, The Architectural Review, and the Avery Review. He has exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the MMCA Seoul, the Seoul Museum of Art, Matadero Madrid, Art Jameel, Azkuna Zentroa, the Cube Design Museum, the Bienal de Arquitectura Española, the Istanbul Design Biennial, the Seoul Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, MOCA (Toronto), a83 gallery, and Corkin Gallery. Gertler was a 2023 resident at Palazzo Monti in Brescia, Italy, and has served on the Board of Directors at Mercer Union, A Centre for Contemporary Art, since 2019. He is Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, and studied architecture at Princeton and the University of Waterloo. Gertler was a recipient of the 2023 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers from the Architectural League of New York.