In order to create a more interactive performance and environment, we collect information derived from the brain activity with the intention of creating an immersive dynamic animation projected in th surrounding environment.
The real-time projection materializes the sensory stimuli felt by the participants during the six gastronomic moments that would, otherwise, not be “materializable”. To this end, we developed an algorithm with the ability to bring the patterns of brain activity to life, according to the reactions to the sensory stimuli. We have also developed an algorithm that projects an animation based on the emotional and pleasurable reaction to the gastronomic experience – in the end, this method is able to specify the favorite experience of each participant, according to the patterns of response to the different flavors. The characteristics and action of each flavor are reflected through the movement and rhythm of the projection. As technical means we will use an EEG (Interaxon Muse) and a native application, created by the MuArts team, that allow to obtain, to process and to translate the cerebral information in audiovisual standards.
Why Ayurveda?
Ayurveda is one of the oldest medical systems in the world. It is known as the traditional Indian medicine and it has nutrition as its fundamental foundation, from a holistic and integrative point of view. Nowadays, there is a clear need for change in order to achieve greater balance, and Ayurvedic medicine teaches us an intuitive reading of the Body / Mind binomial VS Universe, as well as an attitude and behavior that allow us to achieve a perfect harmony between our organism and the environment in which we live – between the Micro-Cosmos and the Macro-Cosmos, respectively. In this process, each of us is our own doctor and the pharmacy, our own kitchen.
Ayurveda comes from two words: Ayu and Veda. Ayu means Life as the continuous coexistence and combination of body, senses and motor organs, mind and soul. Veda means knowledge. The Vedas themselves are the earliest and oldest written record of mankind, some dated 5,000 years ago.
The theory of the six flavors according to Ayurveda
Unlike in other currents of Nutrition, taste is taken as a fundamental element in Ayurvedic medicine, with a determining action in our body and metabolism.
The taste, as the color and the smell, is the first experience that our organism lives when ingesting a certain food. Just as our face reacts to sour or bitter tastes at a physiological, sensory and emotionally level, so does our endodermal tissues and our own organs react to that taste. It is on this basis that we can determine the various actions of the six flavors in the body and how the interaction between organs and their functions are influenced by the taste of each element.
Bitter – Elimination / movement
Astringent – Disposal / Cleaning
Acid – Elimination / quantity
Sweet – Anabolic (mass increase)
Salty – Retention (of liquids)
Spicy – Catabolic (loss of mass)
It is this association of each of the flavors with the different constellations of organs, emotions and actions of the organism that makes Ayurveda and the Six Rasas’ theory so interesting for this experience.
By basing ourselves on this principle and contextualizing it in a dynamic neuro-feedback experience – where experience, subject, and object become one event – we are not only able to visualize and experience (at an auditory and imaginative level) the sensory experience of the palate, but also to neuro-scientifically prove what this millennial science has transmitted and left us.
Although visual projections are limited to the level of attachment / satisfaction with the sensory experience, aptitudes may be observed for certain tastes and physiological needs of each individual.
The flavors and their effects at an emotional level
Bitter – disgust / desire for transformation
Astringent – fear / introspection
Acid – envy / adventure
Sweet – desire / satisfaction
Salty – greed / delight
Resonance & Nutrition – The Frequency of Flavors
A taste, such as a color or a sound, may have a specific frequency that interacts and resonates with the physical body; something that has fascinated and motivated us for this experiment and data collection is the possibility to discover what a frequency associated with a flavor can be like. In this sense, we explore the latent therapeutic potential of modern techniques such as neuro feedback – supported by ancestral knowledge and wisdom – with the aim of discovering new non-invasive and sustainable therapeutic techniques.
