Title: GhostFood
Artist(s): Miriam Simun and Miriam Songster
Source: Neural Magazine
Sense(s): Taste
Issue(s): Food loss due to climate change
This piece explores the loss of biodiversity due to climate change, but in the form of smell and taste of foods threatened by climate change. The artists therefore created a performance piece, whereby they installed their work in a food truck that ‘served’ taste experiences of flavours that may be threatened by climate change, such as cod, peanuts and cocoa. The users ordered from a menu of food they would like to taste. However, what is presented to the client is not the food itself, but a device that directly stimulates the olfactory (taste) sense, giving the impression of experiencing the food. The device is worn on the face, and directs smells into the nose. This olfactory experience is supplemented by a ‘climate resilient textural substitute that will mimic the texture’ of the soon to be unavailable food.1 It is known that the sense of smell influences how food is tasted. Therefore, by designing these devices as a thought experiment, the authors are making ‘smelly’ and ‘tasty’ the effects of climate change, while asking the audience to consider their visceral response to these substitute materials.
What is unusual about this project is that it invokes ‘olfactory memory’ 2 to evoke visceral responses to climate change. This also evokes a sense of attachment to food, and the relative disgust at eating synthetic substitutes of food that no longer exists. Thus, the project reveals that not only can environmental issues be visibilised and sonified, but made olfactory also.