The Polarity Paradox
1
2
Polarity Paradox Ambiguity
Food develops into intrusive and disconcerting connotations. Detached from previous assumptions and expectations of comfort, the industry evolves into different parallels. Soft and malleable feelings are juxtaposed to jagged edges and jarring creations. Food becomes ambiguous, a focus on the senses and interpretation where nothing can be taken literally or from first impressions We focus on the unknown and the uncertain. The complexity and foreign nature of the experience is intensified by the atmosphere and style of presentation. Austerity overtakes complexity leading to a minimal and stark dining experience. The sole focus of the encounter is the food. Revolving around the aim of being encompassed by the experience and transported to a different world. When we spend our days bombarded by imagery, branding, sights, sounds and smells. The mind takes an adverse direction in Ambiguity. Starved of familiarity and the ability to identify the food, the mind and body makes its own decisions. The movement is about the removal of expectations and the quest for fear, emotions and experiences in the extremes. When deprived of the senses such as sight, the body fights to find and interpret the surroundings. Depriving the mind of the ability to immediately identify the food leads to an adverse and unique experience, an extreme that we are not aquatinted with in modern society. Through living in a mundane world, taken up by full time jobs, schedules and commuting we crave the opportunity to find extremes. The pursuit leads us to Ambiquity.
3
above: The previous assumptions of food and dining will be entirely distorted with the Ambiguity trend. Comfort and reassurance will no longer take place in both the food and the dining experience.
4
5
above: It is unlikely in modern dining that the diner has not come across the food they are consuming before, therefore the way they approach, encounter and view the food will be altered in order to ensure a unique and extreme experience.
6
above: The ties with natural landscapes and theoretically unassuming nature of the trend become jarring and arresting.
7
8
9
10
above: Rough is juxtaposed with smooth to inflame the feeling of unease.
11
above: Exploring food singularly, discovering new textures with familiar tastes in their natural form or in ways they’re not usually served.
12
above: Foods will not be immediately identifiable, their sinister and unrecognisable appearance evokes unnamed emotions.
13
14
above: Mundane and extremely normal things are transported into the odd and surreal through a different vantage point or type of sense deprivation.
15
16
above: Marbling represents the confusion of the senses and how the mind struggles to grasp the concept of theoretical blindness to the perception of taste.
17
18
19
20
above: Dining will be a much more ridged and precise affair. Set courses and menus and no choice.
21
22
above: The experience will be incredibly minimal, ensuring that the focus is on the food and all levels of potential comfort and familiarity are removed from the attendees .
23
above: Identifiers will be removed from food products to reduce the connotations and the associations of their expected apperance and taste.
24
25
26
above: Robbing the mind of a sense such as sight ensures the increase in the other sense and a hightened sense of emotion, expanding the extreme nature of the experience.
27
All photography, images and editing by Harriet Cooper
28