Crossmodal and VR Dinners
Since 2012 I have been creating multisensory gastronomic experiences based on my research on crossmodal correspondences. In “Cena Emocional” (Emotional Dinner), María Zegna, Janice Wang and I built four scenes where food, smells and music responded to different emotional states: “Narcotic” (music: “Clair de lune” by Gabriel Fauré, food: "arroz con leche", smell: roses), “Irritant”: (music: "Child of Tree" by John Cage, food: spicy bread served on the spines of a cactus, smell: an irritant monomolecular odor), “Depressive”: (music: sound texture by me, food: blueberries floating in fish tanks containing icy water that people had to catch with their hands, dance by Zegna, smell: humidity and earth) and “Stimulant” (music: Rebonds B by Iannis Xenakis, drink: champagne mixed with Fanta Orange Soda). Other performances by Zegna and I (MoT and ToM) were organized in four parts corresponding to the basic tastes bitter, sweet, sour, salty. In each part a piece of contemporary art music was presented together with visual live performance and dance, while at a given moment (indicated on a screen) the spectators had to eat a small canape of the corresponding taste, made from ingredients used by the originary people of Latin America (MoT) or typically Finnish (ToM). The music for each taste was selected on the basis of crossmodal taste- music correspondences.
Recently I have been exploring gastronomic experiences in Mixed Reality with Dr. Jean-Christophe Sakdavong, Rob Verf and Nanna Rintala (see our paper "Aesthetic emotions in a mixed reality gastrosonic experience " in the Research section)