TANGIBLIZING TASTE

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OCTOBER, 2014

issue #4

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Sugar cubes are perceived unconsciously to represent the 'sweet' taste. This is because it has a certain form and texture used and touched by people, despite the fact that the experience is mostly connected to coffee drinking.

From this we questioned: What about visualising different tastes by creating geometric units? The biggest challenge was to find the right shape for each tastes.

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Basic Tastes

There are 5 different tastes human can sense. Sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness and umami. (defined in Wikipedia)

Sweetness

Sweetness basically feels good. It is the only taste which does not feel unpleasant no matter how much of it is added to the food, whereas others do. From this insight, sweetness starts from soft and round shape and adds volume for stronger taste.

Saltiness

Saltiness is essential to maintain ostomic pressure of human body. However, your tongue is hypersensitive to over saltiness and gets easily unpleasant after exceeding desired level. Therefore, primitive geometry represents the essentiality and modular construction shows the incremental sensitivity.

Sourness

Sourness gives joy up to some level, but when it exceeds resistance it is almost impossible to bare the taste. This tightly stretched cylindrical shape shrivels according to the level of sourness.

Bitterness

Bitterness was meant to distinguish poison. Slight amount of it adds taste but better not to put more than that. To show the aggressiveness of the taste, pointed ends stand out.

Umami

Umami was recently added to the 4 basic tastes. It doesn't own any specific taste but doubles or enhances other tastes. Umami floating rings are variable depending on the shapes of other tastes.

Further Sensations

These are additional sensations other than tastes we feel while eating. The shapes can be translated more into textures and added next to the basic senses, since they are mostly sensed by cutaneous(skin) nerves.

Application : Coffee

Espresso / Cappuccino / Affogato

Application : Ice Cream

Chocolate / Peppermint / Lemon Sorbet

Application : Fruits

Apple / Lemon / Banana

published on 31st of October, 2014.