Art And Science
June 1, 2006
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Art And Science
Most food scientists would say that working with ingredients is an art, but rarely are ingredients actually featured as art. International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), Dayton, N.J., and Monell Chemical Sciences Center, Philadelphia, both recently showed off the creative sides of science by featuring ingredients as pieces of art.
IFF teamed with art publisher Visionaire for Visionaire 47 Taste, a piece that
combined IFF’s flavor expertise with contemporary artists and
photographers. The limited-edition publication pairs 12 flavors, provided
through the use of taste-film technology, with 12 images by artists such as
Yoko Ono, Thomas Demand, Vik Muniz, Jenny Holzer, Karen Kilimnik, Gary
Hume, Richard Phillips, Bruce Weber, David Sims, Nobuyoshi Araki and
Sølve Sundbø.
Taste is the second
collaboration between the ingredient company and Visionaire. The first project, Visionaire Scent, debuted in
2003 and featured fragrances developed by the company. IFF spokesperson
Carol Brys says the original project marked one of the first times the
company’s perfumers had worked without a
specific application or consumer group in mind.
“It wasn’t to appeal to [a certain
demographic]; they were fragrances to push the emotional boundaries of the
images that were represented,” Brys says. “Some were abstract
and some were more literal.”
“It put our name out there as a truly innovative and creative company that’s willing to go out
on a limb,” she adds.
IFF flavorist Marie Wright managed the Taste project and says the
choice to use film to deliver the taste was based on several factors,
including the space constraints of the publication’s presentation
box.
“We were pushed to think, ‘How can we do
this?’” she says. “Film seemed the only option to have
the number of tastes we wanted in that box in a form that would be stable
and globally acceptable, and we also wanted it to be quite
high-tech.” Biotec Films produced the flavor films, which are similar
to breath films, for the finished project.
The flavors and pictures are best experienced in a
guided format, Wright says, comparing it to walking around an art galley
without the aid of a tour guide or guide book. “The experience is
enhanced if you have the opportunity to have someone explain it to
you,” she says. “We’ve had a couple events where
we’ve been publicizing Visionaire, and they’ve been hugely successful because people
have loved the stories that go with it.”
The publication launched at a Miami art event that
drew front-page coverage for the project, and IFF has since showcased the
project for the Research Chefs Association and
will present at Copia, Robert Mondavi’s center for wine, food and the
arts.
Monell is exhibiting its artistic side at
Philadelphia’s Esther M. Klein Art Gallery in a first-of-its-kind
exhibit to be held in the city. Called “Scent is Life,” the
multimedia art-science experience is a collaboration between perfumer
Christopher Brosius and the Monell Chemical Senses Center.
The Monell Chemical Senses Center is a nonprofit
organization focusing on research regarding taste and smell. The new
exhibition, which began in May and will run through July 1, features a
series of interactive installations designed to reveal the influence of the
sense of smell on people’s lives. Many of the installations use scent
to take the audience to a specific place — scents including
“boardwalk,” “sun tan lotion” and “car
interior with wet bathing suit” create the experience Day At The
Beach, for example.
Commentary from the Monell Center provides a
scientific foundation for the experience, and an educational outreach
component relates the science of smell to the worlds of art through a
public lecture/science roundtable, and through visits from local schools
designed to introduce students to the worlds of art and olfactory science.
According to Gary Beauchamp, president and director
of the Monell Center. “The art-science partnership will make
‘Scent Is Life’ uniquely appealing to the public.”
“Scent is Life” is sponsored by the Starr
Organization, Nickolaus and Jami Heidegger, George Retseck Design,
Southwest Graphics, The Science Center, Victory Brewing Co., the Sense of
Smell Institute and Philadelphia Style magazine. BI
