I’ve been challenging myself to do something beyond helping curate speakers and organizing Quantified Self Amsterdam together with Maarten and Joost, which results in a new talk each time. Presented were the results and ruminations on and off topic around memory, more specifically, from 2 months of field research, spending every Tuesday evening with my mate Bas. This led to the insight in applying a software development methodology, version control systems, to the Self.

Programmers are raised these days on geek tools like Github to make sure they can work together without destroying each others work for each new software release cycle. After a release or new version occurs, new functionalities and code ideas recommence. This is done via a system of ‘branches’ connected to a main ‘trunk’ of code. Each new version selectively incorporates code ‘commits’ from these branches back into the trunk which are then released in a new code version. My point was in wandering what we get if we exchange code for our most personal memories and software versioning switched for rites-of- passage, key events, turning points in how we decide who we are. Each age transposes its current orientating metaphors on the sedimentation of human knowledge. What will ‘the network’ and ‘computation’ do to our sense of Self and how we look at our history? What impact will it have on our identity formation process?

Check out the other speakers from our recent event held at Mediamatic.

Another pathway of experience design comes through the serving of food and is decanted via the evolution of restaurant cultures. The bleeding edge of cooking is a hive of sensory activity. The willingness and understanding of restaurant chefs to want to surprise and break assumptions, coupled with the abstraction and decoupling of flavor from its mother-form is providing for wild leaps of faith. New techniques and new tool kits have arrived thanks to chefs seeking out chemists and machine makers for collaborative benefit. Chefs can now embed flavor into materials not heard of before, while eradicating the separation of salt for maincourse and sweet for dessert. Foams, bubblebaths, gels, condensates, crunches never snowboarded before, hot and cold waves like physists seeking out new quantum materials. Environmentals like smoke or other textured or fragrant materials. The only remnants to an older time are the waiters. Surely more theatrical and narrative heavy experiences are soon to appear.

Biggest regret in my life so far: Having to turn down and stagiere position at El Bulli. (I could not get out of other committments…a painful lesson.)

Nevertheless, if i had done that then i would not be where i am now which i really can’t complain about. Actually i feel lucky to be able to work on fascinating projects with clients or together on collaborations with friends. Food has not left forever. Personally i would like to integrate the learnings from working with food and experience across to what i do now which is so similar. Here’s a promise to reengage with the sensory richness of food and theatre.

Video is of Alinea restaurant in Chicago, and you can take a look at their R&D here. El Bulli is located in Rosas, Spain.