Egg | MoMA R&D Salon 45 | MoMA LIVE

The egg is a universal symbol of life across cultures and religions––and then of hope, purity, prosperity, and engineered perfection. The simplicity of both the object and the word hides a wondrous complexity of meanings and values. As a food versatile in its uses and rich in flavor while also being nutritionally lavish, the chicken egg finds its place both in meals of decadence and of scarcity. At the global scale, it is so fundamental to every table as to have called for massive industrial production, with great ethical and ecological consequences. As a design feat, its shell is fragile yet strong, engineered to be broken by a hatchling from within but not by an adult that sits atop. More broadly, the egg cell is the progenitor for all forms of animal life, and is thus a symbolic center for many contentious debates around motherhood, genetics, and the question of what constitutes life. The egg even further complicates our notions of time itself––see the pervasive chicken-or-egg dilemma, for instance––as an