“Try this carrot as if you were a cat!” … and other ways of composing taste.

What is taste? How does it change? How can we shape our tasting experiences?
We often taste without paying much attention to the experience — although tasting is a central part of our encounters with the world. When we eat, we incorporate a part of the world around us into our bodies. When we taste, we feel, structure, and evaluate our relationship with the world. We create meaning with our senses — with our mouths and noses, our throats and stomachs, and also with our eyes, our hands, and our head. How does this work? Why do some things taste good sometimes and not so good on other occasions?

As you work through the exhibition, you will explore one element with an effect on taste in each phase. There are six phases altogether. You will experiment, for instance, with the expectations we have as we approach food, the sounds we hear while eating and the utensils we use to eat. You will be able to select and combine various foods. In each phase, you will try out several variations and then reach a decision. In the last phase, you will combine all the previously selected variants. This will allow you to discover how eating can be done and experienced differently in a tasting situation you have composed yourself.

Concept: Michael Guggenheim and Jan-Peter Voß

Collaboration: Nora Rigamonti

Assistance: Aline Haulsen and Max Söding

Exhibition design and technological support: Luise Wilhelm und Sascha Schneider, Kollegen 2,3 Bureau für Kulturangelegenheiten; Larissa Siemon and Alexander Naumann

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/34529