A Taste of the Anthropocene (AToTA)
A Taste of the Anthropocene (AToTA) is a culinary experience designed to taste the history of the Earth.
In collaboration with Jo Zayner, Cooper Galvin, The Balloon Collective, Lera Niemackl, and Cheng Xu during SXSW 2022 at The ODIN.
The beginning: Big bang chocolate
When you bite into this chocolate, a chemical reaction occurs that simulates a rapid and sudden expansion.
Pre-life: Primordial soup
Using fundamental ingredients like amino acids and salts, we formulated a soup designed to taste like the beginning constituents of the earliest life. Served in handmade clay cups.
Anthropocene: Glacier shaved ice
Ice slushies made from Alaskan glacier water. Participants held their serving during a reading of a poem written by Inupiaq poet Joan Kane on glaciers, wherein the ice slushie melts from the warmth of their hands.
Dystopian: Freeze-dried Big Mac®
A facsimile of the renowned Big Mac was made in-house, slurried, freeze-dried, and served in styrofoam containers.
Utopian: Mimosa egg, Lab-grown chicken cells
A theoretical dish about a future where genetically modified chicken eggs could be anything: in this dish, orange juice was specified as resembling the yolk, while the whites were made of champagne. Served in a hand-carved eggshell.
Utopian: Soma Balloon
Edible balloons infused with “Soma”, the medication in the book “Brave New World” that blocks out emotions resulting from stressful situations such as pain, grief, and anger. When you eat the balloon and the “soma”, you’ll talk like a Donald Duck and all you feel is happiness.
