I slip a red dress over my head. The silhouette is fashionably curved, the fabric luxuriously soft and the hemline festooned with small red bobbles.
But this is no ordinary fashion frock: Upon closer inspection, it is the sartorial equivalent of a tongue.
Food in all its glory — including its relation to various parts of the human anatomy — takes center stage in an interactive new exhibition that playfully decodes its role in the modern world.
The relationship between food and humans has long been as complex as any scientific formula, from the perspective of biology to the impact on the environment.
From Mexican tacos to an Indian bhaji, food consumption in different countries can also be regarded as a barometer of a nation in terms of its culture, geography and history.
And on a personal level, there are few people who fail to harbor intimate memories, associations and passions relating to the likes and dislikes of different foods, whether a sweet childhood Madeleine or the bitter bite of a first olive.
It is the word “delicious” and its myriad of meanings that are the starting point for “It’s a Tasty World: Food Science Now!” at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan), which attempts to untangle the complex dynamic between the consumed and its consumers.
“The exhibition is not limited to facts because when it comes to food everyone has their own philosophy, emotions, personal history,” says Megumi Matsubara, one half of the design and architecture duo Assistant that created the exhibition. “We tried to convey the factual in a personalized way to show the true relationship between people and what they eat.”
The exhibition is divided into six “menus” dealing with various aspects of food and its consumption: from mass production and preservation technology to the mechanism of tasting and its disposal.
There are no conventional boundaries however: Instead of walls, the 700-sq.-meter space is sliced into compartments by hemp ropes attached to Japanese cedar logs.
“The theme of the exhibition space is ‘relationship,’ ” says Matsubara. “We thought nothing should stand between each person and food, or food and food. Therefore, we didn’t build any walls.”
From the start, the space is inviting and interactive: Bright spinning wheels line the entrance emblazoned with images of food groups in hues that bring to mind vintage 1970s wallpapers.
A handcrafted feel continues with the signage, which consists of red stitches on hanging white fabric and patchwork created by Austrian designer Edwina Horl.
It is at the first menu — entitled “What Does ‘Deliciousness’ Mean? — Mechanism of Tasting” — that a neat row of red outfits in adult and children sizes sit on coat hangers.
Created by Tetsuya Yamamoto, the Japanese fashion designer behind the label Potto, the scarlet dresses are the catwalk equivalent of a tongue, complete with mini rosette taste buds — and visitors are actively encouraged to try them on.
“At first, people didn’t seem to want to touch them, it’s not the kind of thing you’re normally allowed to do in a museum, but we want this to be as interactive as possible,” says Matsubara.
There are the educational figures, facts and statistics traditionally associated with science-museum exhibitions. However, they are in disguise and hidden away — peppered among the colorful displays, screens and games.
A “taste sensor machine” deconstructs the substances that make up different flavors — revealing taste equations such as pickled radish + milk = corn soup.
A further section is devoted to future foods — with examples of sci-fi-like space food and footage of the museum’s director Mamoru Mohri, a former astronaut, tucking into various in-flight food delights at zero gravity, screened on the ceiling.
Beneath a rainbow-bright selection of Dan Flavin-esque strip lighting, the green single-cell organism Euglena — which can easily be cultivated with fresh water and minerals — is also highlighted as a possible future food.
Just around the corner, a Mad Hatters Tea Party vibe prevails with a table filled with pretty handcrafted felt food dishes — from ebi (shrimp) tempura to spaghetti Bolognese. The dishes are part of a computer game that visitors can play by mixing and matching the food in attempts to create a balanced diet.
With 20 million tons of rubbish created in Japan every year, there is also a section on disposal involving piles of life-size bags of garbage, while nearby, a display debunking fact from fiction in terms of food myths includes 60-cm tall milk cartons — the actual size a carton would have to be if every single piece of nutritional information was included.
The presence of several recognizable food brands — such as Meiji in the chocolate-making display and MacDonald’s in the food-preservation section — undoubtedly adds a more corporate dimension to the exhibition. However, they fail to dent the playfulness of the displays and, best of all, the exhibition’s refreshingly interactive “touch everything you see” philosophy.
All in all, there’s only one thing missing: Food that can actually be eaten. Appetite whetted, expect to leave hungry.
“It’s a Tasty World: Food Science Now!” at the Exhibition Space, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) runs till March 22. For more information, visit www.miraikan.jst.go.jp.en