Sound and Taste Workshop

The workshop organized by Filemon at the youth center " A place to live" in Laeken and guided by Bram (Aifoon) and Rasa (FoAM)
was introducing different tastes and sounds by association methods.
The children involved created visual expressions of different edible ingredients and sounds that surround us. They correlated tastes and sounds in order to create an imaginary edible neighborhood.

The 7 young participants kids started their first session blind folded, smelling and tasting different vegetable extracts and ingredients.
While tasting a number of questions where asked: what color do you imagine, what memories come to you, what shape and texture do you see, etc...

Still blindfolded, the children were drawing what they imagined on the table cloth using the ingredients and extracts and going by color and intensity of 5 tastes (sour, bitter, sweet,salty, umami).
Later, the children started to experiment with extracts on a piece of paper. Honey, cinnamon powder, red cabbage juice, paprika - landed on the paper creating a number of wonderfully bizarre drawings!
Then, some scented oils were prepared using mushrooms, beetroot, carrots, lavender.

The second session was guided by sound experts. The children where introduced to the basic techniques of listening, finding the sound, record, place it on the computer etc. They were also asked to match the drawings they had made to one of their sound recordings.

The third session was about edible “building materials”:
waffles, Chinese crackers, corn puffs, seeds, flowers, honey, wasabi paste, condensed milk, coconut oil and many others. The task was to build your imaginary house! Strange and beautiful buildings were erected. Some kids did not stop after one building, but kept on building until their stack of waffles was gone...

When everyone was satisfied with their results, they were invited to tell us a story about the inhabitants of the house, which country it is in, who are the neighbors. So we learned that there is a duck called Paprika who lives in the des(s)ert of Africa, or a group of students occupies a house with a wild swimming pool.

For the last session, the children split in two groups -
one went looking for sounds, that could fit well with the created houses. After recording on the streets around the youth center what they found interesting, they composed some very beautiful soundtracks.
The second group was working party treats for an imaginary street feast.

According to the food pairing principles, components were chosen to add to make chocolate. All the ingredients had to be prepared, chocolate melted, assembled together, pored into forms, cooled down.

Then it was time for the small exhibition - We hung the drawings on the walls of the terrace, the houses where displayed on the tables, the sound system installed. After a few words of reflection, we all could enjoy sweets, smelly oils , self made breads and a few compositions for the ears.

Special thanks to children for enthusiasm and energy,Aifoon for expertise and calmness,Coralie and Jura for the assistance, “A place to live” for a warm welcome, Pieter for transport, Lina and Christina for sharing ideas, Maki for introducing a wonderful world of smells!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/5669776138/in/set-72157626607731984/
http://www.aifoon.org/projecten.php?id=84
http://www.filemon.be/2011/04/taste-sound-workshop/