Amuse-Bouche: the Taste of Art

Book excerpt: One literally can't argue about taste, but there is certainly a lot to say about it. How is it articulated within the spectrum of our senses? And how are perceptions of taste created in the first place? Can taste be manipulated? How can taste be verbalized? What role does the experience of taste play in social interaction and as artistic material? After the Museum Tinguely addressed visitors' senses with Belle Haleine: The Scent of Art and Please Touch: Art's Sense of Touch, an interdisciplinary symposium on taste and food culture followed in early 2019, which put the many fields of human activity affected by taste to the test. This book contains the resulting essays written from the points of view of art and cultural history, as well as psychology, linguistics, and biochemistry.