Touch That Taste! Sweet Pouf

Polish-born, Denmark-based textile designer Martyna Barbara Golik recently developed a collection of textile objects that strive to translate the experience of taste into touch. TOUCH THAT TASTE! approaches the five main taste sensations: umami, sweet, salty, bitter and sour as five tangible and functional, textile-made furniture and clothing items that viewers can have a direct relation with. By using these interior related textile objects, the abstract perception of the senses is physically experienced and brought to life.

In order to determine how a taste can be physical form, the designer conducted an experiment with 10 participants, having them eat a chosen representation of each taste and describe it. In order to translate these tastes into touch and vision, they were asked to imagine and illustrate specifics relevant to shape, color, surface and structure.

“Sight and touch are connected with a perception of surface (in this case textiles), smell and taste are those of more abstract, inner sensations. It is harder to describe smell and taste since we cannot grasp a certain smell or taste in the same way we do with objects, colors, surfaces,” Golik explained in a conversation with ArchiExpo e-Magazine.

One of these sensory-awakening furniture pieces is a pouf that calls to mind confectionary contemplations. The sweet pouf is a round, flexible object made of memory foam that is upholstered with a soft, pink, quilted textile. The user can literally embrace or simply sink into the pouf. Pastel in color and inviting in form, the pouf evokes positive feelings of pleasure, coziness and safety.

Touch That Taste! was exhibited as part of the Ventura Lambrate design district in Milan during the city’s design week last month.