What causes us to like certain things? Taste is complex. Almost every decision we make is influenced by our taste. But what do we know about our taste and how it develops? How has this topic been researched from a physiological, psychological and social perspective? Germany’s largest science centre, experimenta, is exploring these questions with the help of a travelling exhibition.
And where could personal taste be more relevant than amid the abundance of colourful consumer goods that surrounds us? Welcome to the Mall of Taste!
This special exhibition is stylised as a shopping mall with five interactive shops focusing on food, music, fashion, living and love.
Needless to say, an exhibition devoted to taste must also get to grips with the question of taste itself. The exhibition design is a tongue-in-cheek nod to the “decade of bad taste” – the 1980s.
Each of the five thematic areas is presented under a ring suspended from the ceiling. And each corresponding section has its own colour, shape and typography. The variety and diversity are highly “instagrammable”, with countless opportunities for colourful selfies and photos.
The exhibition invites visitors to explore their own tastes in an interactive way. A wide range of learning stations, multimedia activities and creative experiments make the Mall of Taste an extraordinary exhibition experience – and an inspiring place to learn outside school.
The credit card – your key to the world of taste
What would a shopping mall be without credit cards? In the ‘A Matter of Taste’ exhibition, visitors are accompanied digitally by a credit card as they explore the world of taste. Upon entry, each visitor receives a stylised “credit card” equipped with RFID technology. This card is far more than just an accessory – at each interactive station, it activates content, recognises language settings and stores personal decisions, preferences and visit durations to create a completely personalised taste profile.
This makes the credit card so much more than just a means of payment – it reveals what makes up visitors’ taste. At the final installation, Unite in Taste, individual taste profiles are generated from the collected data. On top of that, it reveals overlapping interests and similar preferences among other visitors – providing a surprising and fun way to interact with others.
And anyone who wants to can become part of a citizen science project: in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics and a number of universities, the anonymised data is incorporated into the latest taste research.