The Dinner of Intimacy
Tracing the arc of intimacy across five courses.
Provocation
Can we use the ritual of eating to tell a love story?
Process
To accompany courses, the collective crafted a series of gestures to guide diners through the motions of feeding one another. The evolution of flavors carried the diners from feelings of desire to generosity to attachment, and finally, to (re)discovering their own autonomy.
This experience began with the true story of one relationship. The collective created five courses to evoke the stages of falling in, then out, of love. Each course was designed to be fed by one diner to another using only their hands to create the feeling of co-dependency between diners; mimicking both the choreography and challenges of intimacy.
Sample course
Concept /
Which parts of yourself do you divulge when you first meet someone? Which parts do you guard, obfuscate? In the context of a new partner, what identity do you build for yourself? Vulnerability brings us closer, but walls exist for a reason.
Articulation /
Diners were given a menu of questions to ask one another, and corresponding ingredients in green (yes) and pink (no). Each answer prompted their partner to add a new ingredient into their palm, composing a narrative bite.
"A shell of cocoa butter tied in a candied fennel ribbon. A release of pastis."
Gestures
"Pull a small piece of bread from the loaf, and dip the bread into the broth. Let the bread take in the broth like a sponge. When the bread is full, offer it to your partner’s lips."
Design
A visual identity for Dinner of Intimacy hinged on the image of overlapping artichokes representing the balance of autonomy and codependency. We extended the identity to signage, print collateral and packaging.
Special Thanks
Aja Evans, Amanda Saviñón, Austin Ielpi, Christina du Garnier Croll, Emilio Martinez Poppe, KT Pe Benito, Lara de la Torre, Lisa Crafts Rigoberto Lara Guzmán, Robin Major, Roy Baizan, Sei Smith, Sono Kuwayama, Q Nguyen and Yesenia Ielpi Major.