FLAVOR
EVOLUTION
Flavor Evolution questions the process of creation itself, focusing not on who brings things to life—whether it's humans or nature—but on how things are made. The project explores whether it’s possible to create something natural through an artificial process. By simulating cross pollination principles,
Flavor Evolution allows flavors to evolve through a dynamic process of selection, recombination, and user feedback as the natural selection element. This approach reflects nature’s way of creating, where the outcome is shaped by interaction, adaptation, and randomness, rather than by a rigid, pre-determined plan.
It explores how randomness, often seen as uncontrollable, can be actively incorporated and harnessed, just as nature does. Through this evolving process, Flavor Evolution highlights how new forms and experiences can be generated through the unpredictable interplay of users, environment, and randomness. The project and process was exhibited at SIGN Gallery in Groningen.
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FLAVOR BAR
In the prior version of Flavor Evolution, participants use a mouthpiece to combine smell and taste in real-time, simulating the crossbreeding of aromas and flavors.
In the system, a pump pushes air through a a tube system, that connects to different aroma bottles. The amount of airflow can be adjusted by valves next to the bottle. The air coming from the bottles is pushed through the mouth piece where the aroma mixture is perceived by the olfactory region of the mouth. A second pump pulls from liquid combination of the five basic tastes—sweet, sour, umami, bitter, and salty—and exits it through the mouthpieces onto the tong. . The interaction of flavors and smells creates unique flavor experiences in the mouth.
Participants influence the final flavor by individually adjusting the valves that control the airflow and taste combination. The result is the same for all users: a flavor shaped by the collective adjustments made throughout the process. This version, part of my graduation project at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, explores a multisensory and collaborative approach to flavor.
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THE EXPERIMENT
The experiment begins at the Flavor palette, where participants encounter a selection of 20 individual flavors, each derived from a single flavor molecule. Users randomly select two flavors of flasks and taste them individually by tripping them on edible paper. They then taste a recombined version of the flavors. After experiencing the original and new flavor combinations, participants decide which flavors will persist and which will be discarded. The two preferred flavors return to the evolving palette, while the least favored go into the "extinction pile."
If the recombined flavor is favored, the participant uses a custom-built computer program to generate the precise recipe for the new combination, remixing it at the bar. A new bottle is added to the flavor shelf, joining the evolutionary process. As participants continue to make choices and remix flavors, the shelf evolves, reflecting the collective influence of user decisions, randomness, and environmental conditions. Over time, the flavors on the shelf are not static but continuously transformed, offering an ever-evolving taste experience shaped by human and environmental interactions.
Towards the end of the experiment, users start to discard two flasks, only returning the most flavorful flavor to the shelf.
Over time, this results in one final flavor.