Get ready to experience NEO FUTURIST DINING.

In Roman times, the art of dining incorporated all the known senses to create a total gastronomic experience. In accordance with the ancient experience of dining, the Futurist Movement at the beginning of the 20th century experimented with sensational gastronomy. The most made famous being the Futurist Dinners of Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

Almost 90 years later, Mediamatic in Amsterdam invited Artist and Director Martin Butler and vegan chef Alexander Gershberg to develop a concept for a NEO FUTURIST DINNER.

An eating experience whose aim is to re-think the way in which the world of food, art, and science come together, resulting in an unexpected multi-sensory dinner.

Inspired by the ideas of Kandinskys's principles of Klangfarben, and the influence of the Chinese five elements: Tree, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, each course is created in accordance to the colour and underlaying principles of each element. Each course is designed in a different color, taste, smell, texture, and sound to create a five-course chromatic dining experience.

The project's research stems from studies in Synesthesia, a perceptual condition in which the stimulation of one sense triggers an automatic, involuntary experience in another sense. The project asks the question if colour can create emotion, can that emotion and colour be enhanced by combining it with other senses.

Part of the ongoing investigation is to see how a combination of these senses can create different emotional and social response from the guests through the course of the evening and heighten the gastronomic experience. Each course has its own soundtrack inspired by Newton's circle of sound and colour (1704). Working together with perfume researcher Caro Verbeek, Butler and Gershberg create each dish based upon smells that are associated with that colour. The surroundings and clothing of the waiters also change per course.

The Chromatic Dinner is a monochromatic, audio, visual, olfactory and culinary experience which plays with all the senses. This event will be hosted by Feastown at EASTOWN, and feature tableware by notNeutral + food by Imperfect Produce and Impossible Foods. Spaces are extremely limited.

Event dates:

• June 7, 2018 - 8pm to 11pm
• June 8, 2018 - 7pm to 10pm
• June 9, 2018 - 7pm to 10pm

ABOUT

Martin Butler
Through an interdisciplinary approach, artist and stage director Martin Butler always hopes to bridge and combine various disciplines such as dance, theatre, music, film, performance, new media, and fashion. Trained in drama at Manchester University, and then later choreography and performance at the SNDO in Amsterdam, he has been creating performance work at various theatres and festivals internationally. For more information, visit ww.martinbutlers.com.

Alexander Gershberg
Vegan chef, Alexander Gershberg, was born in Russia, raised in Israel and is currently based in Amsterdam. He founded Vegan Sundays, with which he organizes pop-up events and cooking workshops. As a chef, he has always been interested in more than just taste, concerning himself with the way in which food also influences life in a broader sense.

Mediamatic
Mediamatic is a cultural institution dedicated to new developments in the arts since 1983. They organize lectures, workshops and art projects, focusing on nature, biotechnology and art+science in a strong international network.

In 1983 the focus was on media technology: video art, installations and performance were the early core of their presentations, productions and magazine. In the 1990s it was interactive media. They won international prizes with interactive CD-ROMs and co-organised the legendary Doors of Perception conferences (1993 and 1994) and developed into the leading creators of interactive social media projects.

Their exhibitions, workshops and symposiums reached and continue to reach a large and diverse audience. In 1994, Mediamatic.net went online and their website has since grown into an online social network where members and organisations can exchange ideas and projects.

Mediamatic looks for new developments in society and are interested in how art, design and science merge. They organise lectures to further discover and learn how art, design and science merge and look at how our senses, such as taste and smell, influence our emotions and associations. Mediamatic serves as an international networkhub with a physical location in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Special thanks to Feastown at EASTOWN, Imperfect Produce, Impossible Foods, Mediamatic, and notNeutral for making this event possible.