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Super Sense Me

by 

Michael Walma van der Molen

Design and Technology track

Mentor — 

Sarit Youdelevich

A sensory study of the way we consume and experience food.

I hum while eating. My son hums as well. We hum together - it is a form of communicating our enjoyment of food.

What do we satisfy when we dine? Hunger? Appetite? Greed? Emotion? Pleasure? Desire? How can we, in an over consuming world, change eating behaviours, redefine cravings and gratifications and become more mindful of the way we relate to food and its consumption?

Eating is an everyday multi-sensory experience. Our brain interprets data it receives from an array of sensory peripherals in our bodies.

I am exploring the notion that our senses can be modulated. The dining table is my playground, a case study into the affordances of objects and experiences. Around the table we communicate, put edible substances into our mouths, touch surfaces and foods, use utensils, gesticulate and emit or perceive sounds. I am attempting, through a series of augmentations and extensions of these modalities, to arouse our curiosity about the way we interact with food and thus influence our intake rate and eating rhythms. 

Our culture of abundance and perpetual growth is a wicked problem in terms of food security, environment and health. Modifying our sensory relation to one of our most basic needs is a path to change behaviour and foster care for a more sustainable and healthy future.

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Michael Walma van der Molen

Michael Walma van der Molen has a degree in industrial design from the Design Academy in Eindhoven, and a degree in Architecture and an M.Des in design and technology from Bezalel. He is active in the fields of design, architecture and landscape urbanism in Israel and abroad. His interests cross disciplinary borders and are rooted in a curiosity about the way we perform everyday tasks and how our bodies interact with daily physical environments. He likes to play, operate divergently and intuitively combine different media and technologies. He is a faculty member at the Department of Architecture at Bezalel where, besides teaching, he is the academic coordinator of foundation and media studies.

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