Computer of the Mouth

The year is 2149, and you return home after a long day at work. You're hungry and craving a delicious dinner. There's no time to go to a restaurant – instead, the restaurant comes to your home. Sky, your long-time roommate, serves you anything you wish. Today's menu features Flammkuchen and lemon cake. The dinner is accompanied by classical music, with urban sounds in the background, and the lighting adjusts to your mood. Our art installation and final result called "Table of the Future," is inspired by a futuristic and dystopian vision of potential dining scenarios in the future. Here, visitors are immersed in a futuristic setting enhanced by projections, ambient sounds, and an AI companion, enriching the personal dining experience. The role of dining has transformed; what once was a social gathering ritual has become a solitary activity, albeit in the company of an AI.

Title: Table of Future
Module: Computer of the Mouth 2023
Collaboration: Charline Giebel, Jan Hobi, Loïc Hommel, Valentin Schmidhuber

Food of the Future

We wanted to produce a homogeneous mixture that looked the same for different dishes and was also edible. We first tried oatmeal porridge, but then quickly realised that the consistency of semolina porridge was the best fit for our project. Mainly because it has less flavour of its own.

We created three dishes with different ingredients and flavours. Flammkuchen, lemon cake and pizza. We finally decided in favour of the first two. For the Flammkuchen, we even soaked a slice in full-fat milk, which absorbed all the flavour overnight so that we could mix it with the semolina porridge the next day.

Technology

To realize our vision, we employed a mix of technologies coupled with a 'Wizard of Oz' approach. Two projectors, mounted near the ceiling, cast images of the meals onto the semolina pudding. A separate projector, equipped with TouchDesigner software, created visualizations for the AI voice companion. To streamline our process and focus less on technical complexities, we manually controlled various elements, such as table projections and music, using a MIDI board. This approach ensured a seamless experience for the user.

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