A dish with sounds and scents

Second: Aerofood, tactile, with sounds and scents (devised by Fillia). Here there are few little complications. Eating futuristically, one uses all the five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. We put to the reader a few other rules for the perfect dinner which will help us to enjoy fully the taste of all the courses to come: first the use of the art of perfumes to enhance the gastronomic experience. Every dish will thus be preceded by a perfume attuned to it, which will be dispelled from the table by electric fans. Next the use in measured doses of poetry and music as unexpected ingredients to accentuate with their sensual intensity the flavours of a given dish. The second course consists of four parts: on a plate are served one quarter of a fennel bulb, an olive, a candied fruit and a tactile device. The diner eats the olive, then the candied fruit, then the fennel. Contemporaneously, he delicately passes the tips of the index finger and middle fingers of his left hand over the rectangular device, made of a swatch of red damask, a little square of black velvet and a tiny piece of sandpaper. From some carefully hidden melodious source comes the sound of part of a Wagnerian opera, and , simultaneously, the nimblest and most grateful of the waiters sprays the air with perfume. Astonishing results: test them and see. (Futurist Cookbook, Marinetti)

Images are from Wallis Eats – a short film I made, to test my tactile exploration of food and eating, and how it can be communicated audio-visually.