Eating Is Art

I was interviewed last month for a user design experience magazine and on-line forum, Use8. “Use8 is the premier forum for discussions in user experience. The network is at the intersection of different creative disciplines that all come together to form an open sharespace; that encourages idea exchange, knowledge transfer and emergent collaboration.” The interviewer, Alfonso Crimini, came up with some really great questions that were challenging and insightful. Thank you, Alfonso!

Use8> So, what do you do and what’s your background?
Tricia> I started out as an Urban Planner, experiencing firsthand the disparities in communication and how misunderstood the messages were by diverse communities. It was then I realized how important it was for me to find a way that allowed me to not only communicate and connect with diverse audiences, but to do it in a way that connected with myself as well. So I quit planning, managed a bookstore while taking night classes in graphic design, built up my portfolio, and applied to grad school for my Masters in Fine Arts and Design. After my first year in school, I found myself getting more excited about what cake I wanted to bake when I got home from the studio than the graphic work I was producing. This is when I realized I needed to shift my direction and perception about what design means for me by aligning my passions for food, connection, communication, design, and people under something that really resonated: Eating Design.

Use8> Can you tell us exactly what is Eating Design?
Tricia> Eating Design was first termed by a Dutch designer, Marije Vogelzang. We both have slightly different but complementary interpretations of this new field in design, and are constantly tweaking, building, and expanding it through different projects. For me, Eating Design is rooted in the tradition of graphic design as a mode to communicate stories, messages, or ideas through food concepts and experiences. It can become a framework for people to connect more with themselves and with others, by using food as our shared common denominator to open doors that traditional design methods, such as strict print or web, can not do. I get really excited about the malleability of Eating Design and how accessible it is for people no matter their language, socio-economic background, culture, or race. Everybody eats.

Use8> How did you come up with the idea of “Eating Design” experiences?
Tricia> I was looking for a way to align my true interests—design, communication, connection, people, and food. Communicating through food and creating an eating experience seemed to make the most sense while trying to integrate all these things. I then broke it down and started working with very specific points in which my designs all start from: taste, place, personal history, memory, and community.

Use8> Design is essentially about negotiating constraints and solving a problem. When designing an “eating experience” are you trying to solve a problem?
Tricia> Most certainly. It is always a challenge to figure out the simplest and most direct way to communicate something. But to do it in a way that resonates across cultural, societal, or language barriers is a whole other level of challenge.

Use8> Eating is already an interactive experience where people naturally communicate and socialize, how can you improve these social interactions through design?
Tricia> Eating as a social interaction is the perfect segue to introduce deeper concepts or meanings. When we eat there are many things happening which become the perfect entry points for people to reflect, connect, or experience a new way to look at something. First, we are using all five senses, automatically engaging more of our brains in what we are doing. When we are reading or listening to something, there are still four other senses that could be involved to heighten our awareness and help us learn and remember better. Second, since eating is a social thing we all do, we all understand eating. So why not mix that up a little and introduce some unexpected elements to incite conversation amongst a group of guests who may not know each other, ultimately connecting them with the message/story/idea and each other through the action of eating. I look at the Eating Design experience not necessarily improving social interactions as those can and do happen naturally on their own, but enabling those interactions on a different level through what, how, why, and where the food is being served. I am interested in not just pleasant interactions, but honest ones, where differences and similarities between people each have their place at the table and are equally celebrated.

Use8> In some of your work you allude to a connection between taste and feeling. This is clear, I feel good when I have a warm cup of tea and it’s cold outside. However, I sense your idea is more complex. Can you elaborate on this idea of the relationship between taste and feeling and why this might be important for a designer to understand?
Tricia> Taste, and ultimately the sense of smell, has a visceral response for people because of how those senses are situated in our brains. They connect directly to our memory center without the filters that our senses of sound or sight go through. We are more apt to question something that we’ve seen or heard, thinking about it, and even choosing to remember it how we will. We can easily ask ourselves, did I really just hear that noise? Or, my eyes must be playing tricks on me! But when we smell our grandmothers’ perfume, we are automatically transported back to specific and personal memories of our grandmother. This is important for the designer to understand because of the impact and success a multi-sensory design can have. I am utilizing that visceral response we get through taste and smell by exploring the other layers of meaning that I attribute to go along with it, namely: place, personal history, memory, and community. I am questioning what all these points share in common and where the gaps are between them, ultimately connecting the people involved in the Eating Design experience with themselves and/or with the others involved.

Use8> Is there a difference between Eating Design and what the culinary artist does?
Tricia> Yes. The culinary artist’s guiding principal is mastering cooking technique or creating great tasting food. We share a commonality in accessory principals such as the dining experience and local/organic food sources. However, Eating Design focuses on not just what we are eating, but how we are eating, and the meaning behind it all. I am not a chef, therefore I seek out culinary artists and chefs who are masters in their field to collaborate and help create the project I am envisioning. If something turns out tasting badly, I think that is an interesting point to explore in the context of particular projects. Eating Design is about the connections people have with themselves and with others during an experience by facilitating an extra level of awareness through a food concept; it is holistic where there is not only food to be eaten, but the food is infused with meaning through how it is served, where it is served, and what is being served.

Use8> How important is it to understand the people that will experience your Eating Designs? How do you try to understand them, do you apply any research technique?
Tricia> The research I do is used to set up a framework for people to have access to and make the experience their own; the techniques differ between projects. For my Favorite Meal series, I have devised a series of questions which are sent to interested participants. Their answers guide me to design their experience with personal entry points based on specific memories as well as including small interjections and interpretations of my own. I am most interested in the accessibility of my designs to diverse audiences across cultural, societal, economic, and lingual barriers. It is important for me to understand the context and history of where, what, and why eating design events are happening. However, once those have been considered, the beauty of using food in design is its universal appeal, because everybody eats. The Eating Design then guides the guests through their own personal journey, connection, and understanding of the event. As the designer, I believe it is important to give my audience simple and universal entry points so they can connect with themselves, the other people involved, and the experience itself with a personal understanding. The event is then ultimately designed by the individual experiencing it, taking away what he or she will based on how well I set up the initial framework for accessibility.