Food Aesthetics: Here and Now... Now and Then Roger Haden Abstract: Food aesthetics is a commonly used expression today, its currency no doubt coinciding with the proliferation and diversification of food and drink types, styles, and of course consumer tastes for all the things we buy ―not only food. In this sense, consumerism has come a long way since the fall of the Iron Curtain. To some extent, what we now call aestheticization, is a product of globalization, the emergence of which marked the end of the Cold War. Globalisation became a dominant theoretical concept, used to also make sense of technical changes brought about by information technology, and ‘the world-wide-web,’ in particular. People, money, products, and of course, ‘information’ (data in the broadest sense), circulated as never before, generating unprecedented growth in consumer goods, not to mention global brands and consumption as such. Aestheticization thus goes hand in glove with globalization. It makes consumable goods and services, identities, and even the senses ―consumable, hence the term ‘commodification of the senses.’ The paper considers both the ‘here and now’ of aesthetic experience (e.g., eating a slice of quality sour dough bread!), together with the ‘now and then’ of food aesthetics, in an historical register. It hopefully provides an appropriate catalyst for discussions about ‘the education of the senses,’ which implies both how the senses are influenced (by aestheticization), but at the same time always remain capable of ‘being educated’ in ways that speak directly to experience.
A Symposium Gift : Rogers Comprehensive Guide to Making Sourdough
(Who's been busy in lockdown, Roger?)