This work was developed as a collection of cards documenting an investigation of the history of food and potential future food cultures. Through sequential yet multidirectional explorations of historical and contemporary references, the research reflects a range of knowledge fragments that provide a backbone for the thesis project.
It sets out with an interest in understanding today's standardized, centralized food system, particularly elaborating on the importance of taste. A glossary of terms was developed, expanding the vocabulary on the topic beyond just the materiality of what we eat, to the immaterial aspect of taste and its social implications.
After diving into the socio-cultural and philosophical literature on the theory of eating, contemporary artistic approaches to food were explored. Investigations on the project's site, the Gänsehäufel – an island located in the Old Danube in Vienna, presented a historical understanding of the urban context. Geopolitical changes in relation to the city's development of culinary traditions were documented through knowledge fragments extracted from cookbooks on Viennese cuisine. Adding new cards to the collection was used to investigate the Old Danube's relation to a future food system and understand today's ecological artifacts. Ultimately, investigations in the field of flavor engineering required a visit to a local factory. Applying research and documenting the production process of aroma through photos and conceptual visuals strengthened the proposal of an urban taste factory.
The thesis project proposes an urban taste factory as a producer of pleasure for daily vacationers and cooks of all kinds.
Today's taste production is a hidden process; however, it should become part of an urban society and transform the role of the consumer to the one of the eater. In this context, the proposal investigates a factory for gustatory pleasures that goes beyond just its functionality and necessities. It is about those moments that celebrate delight and comfort.
Drawing inspiration from the Japanese tea garden, the project is contemplated as a construction balancing artifice and nature while creating spaces for the senses. Its sequential spaces of ritual character follow industrial logic and are punctuated by pipes and the laboratory infrastructure used to produce flavors for the world. At its location on the Gänsehäufel, the garden is inhabited by remains of fun in the sun and daily vacationers, amongst cooks of all kinds and other artificial and unexpected ecologies found in the urban lake. Through this hybrid space used for the production of flavors and sunbathing, the project sets out to engage a larger audience in the complexity of industrial food systems, with the aim of creating new familiarity and encouraging curiosity regarding artifice and desire.
