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Abstract

This research focuses on designing an experience to improve nutrition and mealtime of children
and teenagers with cancer. Specifically, the aim of this research is to explore, firstly, the
possibilities of food – as a material with potential to investigate in scientific fields, such as
neurogastronomy, but also to take part in an artistic installation - and new ways of understanding
it and, secondly, to apply this knowledge to creating an experience where this potential is
exploited.
In the first place, the present investigation concentrates on understanding what food is, how it is
seen in our culture –the Occidental culture-, and why this conceptualization is changing. The
main driver of this modification is the discovery of food as a multisensory element that
stimulates nearly all of the sensory modalities (e.g., including vision, touch and audition) at the
same time and, furthermore, its possibilities as an applied art.
In the second place, I will describe a practice-oriented development of work focused on creating
an new experience to test the theses developed in the first part of the present work. In this second
section, we will see how to make use of the multisensory and the artistic characteristics of food,
creating a new design to improve nutrition and eating experience in a field where food is a topic
of paramount relevance.
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General Introduction

The original idea of this project was developed in Berlin, December 2014, after viewing an
exhibition about Lázlo Moholy-Nagy in Bauhaus (Oliver A.I Botar, 2014) named ‘Sensory
training’. A section of the exhibition, made me realize all senses potential, not only sight and
hearing. It aroused my curiosity and I started investigating about senses perception. In addition,
a key moment was in an exhibition in the London Science museum, called ‘Cravings: Can your
food control you?’, where I discovered multisensory perception of food.
This leads to known in depth what is food, why the main perspective is changing and how is
possible to apply this changes to make it beneficial.
Ferran Adrià, Spanish chef considered one of the best chefs of the world this last decade has
revolutionized the gastronomy concept (Piedrahita, 2012), and said that:
“Cooking is the most multisensory art. I try to stimulate every sense”.
That quote was my starting point to formulate a hypothesis to investigate. In the beginning,
Ferran Adrià considers food an art – if cooking is an art, food becomes a masterpiece-, which
means that we can find in it an aesthetic component. Additionally, he describes cooking art as a
multisensory fact because all senses participate in the experience. In my opinion, food is a kind
of art but it will not be included as a Fine art because of its functional utility. Also I agree with
the multisensory factor that food has in human’s perception, largely because it is a proven
scientific fact (Spence and Piqueras-Fiszman, 2014; Grodon M.Shepered, 2012).
There are two hypotheses, based on my introductory paragraph of what topics I am interested in,
that define main objectives of these research objectives.
First of all, hypothesis 1 will be a theoretical investigation in order to classify and comprehend
the topic of the project (phase 1).
Hypothesis 1:
Could food be a multisensory applied art, which some designers
entitled as Food design?

On the second place, born hypothesis 2 born to verify if first conjecture is applicable; that is to
say, enforce hypothesis 1 to a practical development. To sum it up, hypothesis 2 is going to
formulate the starting point for the practical part (phase 2).
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Hypothesis 2:
Could it be possible to use the aesthetic aspects of food and
multisensory perception to create an experience able to improve
nutrition –and the mealtime- in children with cancer undertaking
chemotherapy?
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Methodology

To develop this project there is adopted a theoretical-practical methodology, used to answer

questions formulated in both hypotheses aforementioned. Both phases have a theoretical research
because the main idea is to verify if hypothesis is true, or not, doing an in-depth research.
However, phase 1, as a academic research using literature, is written using APA format
(Explorable.com, 2016); this format requires writing in an impersonal way, abstaining from
using pronouns like "I" or "we" statements. Hypothesis 1 investigation is developed using only
books and articles, in analogic and digital support, so it can be considered as a literature based
research methodology; this part is used to know what is food, why is changing and which
directions can take.
On the other hand, phase 2 is a research done taking part of a project that is being developed in
Sant Joan de Déu Foundation, more specifically in the Experimental psychology and brain
disorders laboratory ‘labjordinavarra’. It could be seen like a ‘journal’ about task done as a
member of the lab, also to know how to put in practice hypothesis 2; that can be, basically,
demonstrate thorough practical work the artistic and multisensory capacity of food, which can be
applicable to benefit nutrition and mealtime of kids and teenagers with cancer. For that reason
this part it is written in first person, with a more informal writing. Despite of that, it continues
using APA format to cite references and other format patterns, such as font size or text
alignment. Furthermore, in this phase, there is a detailed explanation about the methodology used
for developing the practical part of the project: Design thinking, a process that applies creative
problem solving methods and tools, which facilitate dialog, define problems, generate ideas and
obtain solutions.
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Table of contents

Phase 1: Literature-based research

Introduction……………………………………………………………………… 1
Chapter 1
What is food: How culture has built what food is? ………………………….. 5
1.1 Food experience constituents…………………………………….……… 5
1.2 Food in philosophy………………………………………………………. 7
1.3 Food and culture.……………………………………………….………... 7
1.3.1. The cultural side of food………………………………………….. 8
1.3.2. Taste pleasure; responsibility choice; anthropologic
vision.……………………………………………………………… 8
1.3.3. The amount of food……………………………………………….. 9
1.3.4. Food, language and identity………………………………………. 10
1.3.5 Identity and interchange. Tradition and origins…………………… 10
1.4 Conclusion……………………………………………………................. 11
Chapter 2
What art is: How culture has built what art is and why it does not
incorporate food………………………………………………………………... 13
2.1 Historical roots and current concepts to define art……………………... 13
2.2 Aesthetic concepts.……………………………………………………... 14
2.3 Food as an applied art…………………………………………………... 16
2.3.1 Limitations of food in fine arts field………………………………. 16
2.3.2 Cognitive dimension of food………………………………………. 17
2.3.3 Can food be an art? ………………………………………………... 17
2.3.4 Ferran Adrià contribution to see Food as an Art…………………... 18
2.4 Conclusions.…………………………………………………………….. 19

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Chapter 3
The multisensory perception of food: what direction is food research
taking now………………………………...…………………………………….. 21

3.1 The brain …………………………...…………………………………... 22

3.1.1 Neurogastronomy…………………………...…...………………… 22
3.1.2 Gastrophisics: the new science of the table……………………….. 23
3.2 The perception of food is fundamentally multisensory.………………... 24
3.2.1 Senses Perception…………………...…...………………………… 24
3.2.1.1 Smell…………………………...………………………... 25
3.2.1.2 Taste…………………………...………………………… 26
3.2.1.3 Touch (oral somatosensory) …………………………….. 27
3.2.1.4 Hearing…………………………...……………………… 27
3.2.1.5 Sight…………………………...………………………… 28
3.3.Conclusion…………………………...…………………………………. 28
Chapter 4
Food Design: a new way to understand and design food..…………………….. 30
4.1 A critical approach about culture meaning………...……………………. 31
4.2 Food Design Definitions………...…………………………………….… 32
4.3 Food Design and the five senses………...………………………………. 34
4.3.1 Smell and taste impact in the Design of Food………...…………... 34
4.3.2 Touch sense when eating ………...………………………………... 35
4.3.3 Eyesight and food design ………...……………………………….. 36
4.3.4 Sound: the hearing and the food design………...…………………. 36
4.4 Food design into sub-disciplines ………...……………………………..... 37
4.5 Conclusion for hypothesis 1………...……………………………………. 38

Chapter 5.

Conclusion phase 1………...……………………………………...…...……...... 40

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5.1 Conclusion for next steps ………...……………………………....……… 41

Phase 2
General Introduction to Practical phase.………...…………………………….. 43
Employing Food Design as a multisensory applied art……...…………………... 43
Introduction……...…………………………………...……...…………………. 47
Chapter 1
General Information (Literature research) ……...…………………………... 50
1. About Cancer……...…………………………………..........................…….. 51
1.1. Treatments against cancer.……...………………………..……………… 51
1.2. How cancer affect children and teenagers……...………………………... 52
1.3. Cancer and Nutrition in Children and teenagers under chemotherapy…. 53
2. Sant Joan de Déu and Oncologic Paediatry……...…………………………… 54
3. Psychology of human development ……...…………………………………... 55
3.1. My point of view about how children and teenagers live experiences….. 56
3.2. Piaget stages…...…………………………………..........……………….. 57
Chapter 2
Design Research (Comprehension) ……...…………………………………..... 60
1. Planning of the Design Research phase……...……………………………….. 61
2. Ethnography tool in Sant Joan de Déu Project ……...……………………….. 62
2.1. Conclusions from Ethnography tool……...…………………………...… 64
2.2. Empathy map……………………………………………..……………… 73
3. Design research conclusions……...………………………………….............. 75
Chapter 3
Ideation………………………...........…...……………...……………………… 78
1. Game as an experience……...…………………………………...................…. 79
1.1. Current and emerging game trends……………………………………… 81
1.2. Aspects to take into account about games……………………………….. 83
1.2.1 Game patterns………………………….…………………………... 84
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1.2.2 Type of players………………………….…..……………………... 84
1.2.3 Activit loops……………………………………..……………….... 85

1.2.4 Game elements…………………………………………………….. 86

1.2.5 Games analysis……………………………………..……………… 87

2. Factors to take into account…………………………………………………... 90

2.1 Association……………………..……………………………………........ 90
2.2 Experimenting with senses: vision……………………………………...... 91
2.3 The wow factor (surprise factor).………………………………………… 92
2.4 Creative thinking spiral………………………..…...…………………….. 93
3. Ideation tools……………………………………........……………………….. 95
4. Brainstorming.……………………………………..………………………...... 96
5. My proposal.…...………..……………………..............……………………... 104
Chapter 4
Implementation and next steps.……………………………………..………… 112

Phase 3
Self-evaluation about the Final Degree Project………………………………. 113
1. Solving hypothesis………………...……………………………………. 113
2. Creativity self-evaluation…………………………...…………………. 114
3. Self-evaluation about the Final Degree Project………………………. 116

References list…………………………………………………………………… 119
Phase 1……………………………………………...……………………........... 119
Bibliography……………………………………………………………... 119
Webgraphy………………………………………………………………. 121
Phase 2…………………………………………………………………………... 124
Bibliography……………………………………………………………... 124
Webgraphy………………………………………………………………. 125
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Other references………………………………………………………………... 130
Courses………………………………………………………………....... 130
Conferences….………………………………………………………....... 130
Exhibitions………………………………………………………………. 130
Bibliography……………………………………………………………... 131
Webgraphy………………………………………………………………. 131