Task Objectives
The goal is to critically analyze how digital mediation shapes our perception of organic matter.
The task aims to move beyond simple observation and instead use sensory and digital tools to uncover the hidden convergence of multiple elements in the Kirkgate Market.
- Task 1: To utilize sensory practices (sight, sound, taste) alongside digital recording tools to document the market's food systems.
- Task 2: To engage in a "speculative listening exercise" within the Three Fields installation (Unit 493), tuning into landscape ecologies through collected spices and ingredients.
My Objective (Self-Initiated Work)
My duty is to ask "who or what is missing" from the visible display of goods, tracing the invisible labor and agricultural origins obscured by colourful packaging. How does the interjection of digital recording technology into a sensory environment afford novel modes of sensing? Or, conversely, how might it distance us from the material reality of the food we consume?
If only we could taste and smell through phones
Exploring Kirkgate Market with Charlotte was an interesting experiment, largely because my experience was driven by a very basic human need: hunger. Because I had skipped lunch, my focus naturally drifted away from the "digital" task and towards my senses.
Image 1: An image of one of the locations within Kirkgate Market. Here you can see the Victorian architecture blending with the modern lights and stalls.
My first realization happened when I tried a piece of mint-flavoured chocolate. I wanted to document the moment, but I immediately hit a wall. I could record the sound of the chocolate snapping, or take a photo of it, but I couldn't record the feeling of the flavour.
To explain it to anyone else, I had to abandon my phone and use a metaphor instead, describing it as "biting into a chunk of toothpaste."
It was a simple moment, but it highlighted a disconnect. Since the digital file couldn't hold the "taste", I had to rely on a shared human experience to get the message across.
Later, we followed a delicious smell to a Lebanese stall. While we waited for my food, we spent some time touching the fabrics at a nearby textile stall, engaging with the textures of the market.
Image 2: An image of me taken by Charlotte, waiting for my meal to arrive. I was surrounded by the delicious scent of middle-eastern cuisine. But sadly, that can't be smelled through this image.
But when my Pide arrived, my instinct wasn't just to eat it, but to capture it.
I filmed a video of the "cheese pull", that classic shot you see on Instagram. The video looked amazing, and it kind of proved that the food was delicious. However, looking back, the video is just a flat moving image. It captured the aesthetic of the meal, but completely missed the reality of eating it.
Image 3: An image of me taken by Charlotte, while I was capturing a video of the cheese pull.
We did the same with some flowers later on. The photo shows their colours perfectly, but the beautiful scent that actually drew us to the stall is lost. The feeling of holding the flowers and touching the soft petals cannot be shared.
Image 4: An image of me taken by Charlotte, standing amidst beautiful smelling flowers. However the floral scent cannot be captured through lens.
The final part of the workshop involved trying to listen to jars of spices and ingredients using microphones. The results were mostly silent. This led to the most interesting discussion of the day.
Talking with Holly, we realized that this is exactly why perfume adverts are so abstract. You cannot smell a fragrance through a TV or phone screen. Because the "data" of smell can't be transmitted digitally, advertisers have to sell you the emotion of the perfume instead.
Image 5: An image of of the jars of ingredients left to ferment. We tried to listen to the sounds of fermentation.
Key Insight: This trip taught me that while we study "digital media," there is a limit to what digital tools can do. We can record sights and sounds, but taste, texture and smell remain stubbornly human. You can’t simulate them. You have to be there to experience them.
Image 6: A selfie with friends at Kirkgate Market. Our experiences can only be shared so much through our photos and videos, there is so much more going on around us in real-time that cannot be expressed.