MULTI-SENSORY APPRECIATION AND PRACTICE: A SOMAESTHETIC APPROACH TO THE EXPLORATION OF TASTE SMELL AND TOUCH IN FOOD-BASED ART

Abstract

Even though food-based artworks are no longer a new occurrence within art practice, the particular practice of food that uses taste, smell and touch as artistic medium is still relatively new. This practice poses new challenges at both the creative and receptive ends: for the audience the challenge is linked to understanding and relating with the artwork while for the artist it involves directing the audience’s engagement. Under the theoretical lens of Somaesthetics and Langer’s Mindfulness discourse, this thesis has examined what it means to appreciate food-based artworks through taste, smell and touch. It has also investigated ways in which this form of practice can be developed further. Practice within the research has been used as a means of thinking through the creative choices taken by artists with the purpose of understanding how perceptibility and engagement with food-based works through taste, smell and touch can be enhanced. Some of the key references include Miwa Koizumi’s NY flavors, Burkhard Bacher & Herbert Hinter’s Landscape, Maki Ueda’s Aromascape, and several works by Sam Bompas and Harry Parr amongst others. The outcome of the research include: the development of an attentive discourse of appreciation which outlines the conditions necessary for the appreciation of food-based artwork through its taste, smell and touch; and the articulation of creative strategies that can be used by artists to enhance the perceptibility of taste, smell and touch and encourage engagement. The contributions to knowledge made by this thesis include: The introduction of a new genre of food-based practice; the use of Somaesthetics and Mindfulness as a lens to examine the appreciation of food-based art; the identification of new concerns within practice facing artists using food’s taste, smell and touch as medium; and the new form of encounter with art that requires a mindful-somatic attentiveness.