Gusto Restaurant

Interactive

installation

GUSTO is a restaurant concept of the future were sophisticated taste codes are uploaded to your brain, allowing you to delight in tasteless food.
Speculative design
Futuring techniques
Interactive technology design
Master group project
3 months
Evaluation
9 / 10

The CHALLENGE

A dinning experience from a dystopian future

The goal was to create an experience that immerses visitors in a provocative future scenario to make people reflect on existing societal problems.
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We designed a multi-sensory installation where our participants experience a dinner in GUSTO, a restaurant concept of the future were sophisticated taste codes are uploaded to customer's brains, enabling them to delight in otherwise tasteless food.
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Through subtle cues, participants were prompt to consider the trade-offs of giving away intimate data (customer's neuronal information) to gain sensory pleasure, which reflects on how we tend to prioritize satisfaction and convenience over personal data privacy, as well as the dangers that this can entangle.

My Role

Interactive prototyping

I was responsible for designing and programming the behavior of the prototypes as well as the composition of the involved media (sound and visuals).

Using Arduino and Max/MSP I experimented with multiple hardware and human-computer interaction styles such as projected interfaces with movement detection or interactions guided through light, sound and vibration.
Max
7
10
Prototype
iterations
Arduino
Max MSP

Research Through Design

The gallery above shows 6 of the 10 test iterations carried out throughout the project. Every week we built on the findings of the previous one, which allowed us to both understand how people behave in our scenario and gave us ideas on how to further develop it to make it more credible and intuitive.

THE RESULT

Future scenario

In 2060 due to overpopulation and scarcity, the government has put huge taxes on food to lower the consumption. However, it ensures citizens wellbeing by providing them with free, tasteless, nutritious spheres according to their energy needs.  A restaurant concept arises where you can upload flavor data to your brain, which is stimulated to experience taste.
Touch sensors placed over engraved fingerprints in the table allow the user to upload the flavor data to her brain.
A headset with 3 vibration points simulates the manipulation of the neurons in the gustatory cortex.
LED ring interfaces placed below the plates guide and give feedback to user actions.
A beamer plays audio and video projections over the table, responding to the actions of the user.
Flavored nutrition spheres trick the visitor, making her think that the taste experience is artificial. Bellow each sphere, there is a light sensor that detects when the sphere is taken away from the plate triggering the projected explosions.

GIF Storyboard

Photos by Thierry Schut and Guus Schoonewille

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© 2020 Pablo Ferreras