Sensory feasts served to blindfolded guests, transforming the act of eating into a choreography of perception
More than 120 iterations in restaurants, clubs, museums, and homes
Highlights:
2010 Art On the Brain Conference, Arts, Neuroscience & Society, Mt Holyoke College, MA
2011 Light in Winter: Science and Art Festival, Ithaca, NY
2010 Love Lab, The Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
2008 Season, performance-installation, KO Festival of Performance, Amherst, MA
2007 Art Beyond Sight Conference, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 2006 Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY
2005-2013 Camaje Bistro (Chef Abigail Hitchcock), NYC
2005-2013
Dark Dining Projects: Sensory Feasts Served to Blindfolded Guests
From the Guest Book
“I was a little leery of it beforehand, but in the end, I was entirely won over by the experience. I would call it 'a return to the senses' in a world when we are continually baited visually and verbally -- To return to smell, touch, taste, non-verbal sound and no doubt 'the 6th' -- with integrity -- that is, there was nothing about the experience that was duplicitous or manipulative – was greatly relieving to the psyche. It was a kind of reversion to an infant state (depending on others, not knowing what's to come, what you are eating, what the sounds are, being ministered to -- ) but consciously and in an aesthetic and trustworthy universe. In that way it transported us nearly to another realm or at least gave us a good break from the one we have created, for the most part, in our lives."
Press
Extensive worldwide press coverage web, print, TV.
A sampling-- ABC Eyewitness News, AM New York, American Airlines n-flight Magazine, Brutus Japanese lifestyle, Channel 5 Seattle, Columbia News Service, Contact Quarterly, Cool Hunting, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Dr. Ruth’s blog Get Some, Fox News, Fuji TV, Hartford Courant, Kyodo News Service, Maison Francaise Turkish edition , MetroMix.com, NBC-Telemundo, New York Post, New York Times, Newsday, Nippon TV, Northwest Palate, NY Press , Radio Europe Mediterraneo, Salon.com, Seattle Metropolitan, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Springfield Republican, Time Out NY, Univision, USA Today, VH1.com, and many more
Press Highlights
Edible Manhattan “Edible Experience: Dinner in the Dark” Zoe Singer, Nov 2008, premier issue cover story
Theatre Journal, “Valentine’s Day Dark Dining” Gad Guterman Vol. 58.3(2006) 480-1: ". . .As I gained confidence in the surroundings, feeling shapes and textures, discerning sounds and aromas, I relaxed in what seemed a continuously expanding setting. Without sight, it was astonishing how much one could see, how Salisbury's environment activated muscles and nerves that spectators (in the most literal sense of the word) often ignore. . ."
Village Voice, “Food for Thought” Silke Tudor 6-27-06:
". . .In the course of two more dishes, our remaining senses are treated to a light mist of rose water, a tap dancing percussionist who plays his entire body, the delicate fingering of a clavichord, a whisper of breath across our cheeks, some random fingers in our hair, and laughter at every place setting. . . . When we emerge, the dim hallway seems glaringly bright, but everyone is grinning, seemingly relaxed, relieved, and totally elated. . . "