Man Taratorn

What If Music Could Help Us Eat Less? 

Lifestyle diseases such as type2 diabetes and obesity are on the rise every year. More than 3.7 million people in the UK have been diagnosed with diabetes. One of the main causes comes from unhealthy food we eat. Whenever we try to control an intake of unhealthy food, our body responds to make us crave them more and end up overeating. This is a vicious circle of dieting.

Mealody presents an enjoyable solution to control diets in an immersive audio experience by using a music algorithm. Multisensory perception research indicates that slow tempo and soothing music could be a cue to help us taste the flavour more, eat more slowly with more satiety and thus consume less. So, we still can eat what we want in a smaller amount. 

By integrating musical stimulus with an intelligent algorithmic system, Mealody not only suggests a liveable and playful way to help us better manage our diets but also encourages a healthier eating lifestyle and changes our perception of food with more mindfulness.

Mealody presents a music and food pairing service to help us control our diets with four complementary interventions of a music generative algorithm, musical profile application, wearable device and audio speaker. 

In this service, you start by setting up your own music preference then, your profile will be synced with a sensing ring through a music algorithm. When you have your meals, the ring can detect and display nutritional elements from your food, helping you make better eating decisions. Then, it connects with an audio speaker to play soothing music based on your preference and food you eat. In this relaxing musical vibe, you’ll taste it more, eat more slowly with more satiety and ultimately consume less.

This project is in collaboration with Professor Charles Spence from Cross Modal Perception Research Lab, Department of Experimental Psychology at University of Oxford. Inspired by the effect of music and eating behaviour, I conducted a virtual experiment to find a link between musical cues and our eating habits from 3 types of persona groups ( diabetics, obese people and health influencers)

With a partnership with Hammersmith and Fulham diabetes support group, this included an online workshop, focus group and in-depth interview which strengthened and verified the effectiveness of music about reducing food consumption rate and the potential success of this unique design solution. 

In terms of designing an appealing audio experience in a real scenario, this sound prototype is made with 3D sound effects to simulate a realistic and immersive sound via Audacity software and Premiere Pro.

An exploration of overcoming our preconception of eating bugs

Bugbite is a fun and exploratory workshop that challenges people to reimagine eating bugs and aims to create positive perception towards bugs as a sustainable revolution of food resources for our better health, environment and future. 

Inspired by insights and experiments, the taste and texture of bugs are close to snacks like potato chips. What if people knew that the taste of bugs is similar to snacks? Do they have a positive perception and open their mind to appreciate the flavour of bugs?

In this mysterious workshop, a butler will randomly serve bugs and snacks and you’ll blindly eat them. Then, you’ll need to guess what kind of bug you ate and be surprised by the similarity between snacks and bugs! 

Bugbite is not just a fun workshop that helps you have a positive perception towards bugs, at the end, you will learn more about the impact and benefit of bugs you eat not only for your health but also for our planet.

How might we celebrate the Loy Krathong festival without harming the river? 

Loy Krathong is a festival in Thailand celebrated annually in November. Loy means to float, Krathong is a vessel made of banana leaves and flowers. Thai people release a Krathong as a symbol of releasing bad feelings into the river.

After only one night, the Krathongs turn into rubbish that harm marine lives and are difficult for waste management. 

What if people could celebrate this festival by releasing their negativity into the river and reviewing their emotion throughout the year? Instead of releasing Krathongs into the river to avoid creating water pollution. 

Introducing LOY, a digital algorithm and emotion projector. The algorithm in your smartphone and laptop will collect your facial expression throughout the year as emotional data. At the night of Loy Krathong festival, all emotion data will be sent to the lotus-shape projector, the projector will activate only near the river bank and project your feelings into the river, it’s a festive time to review your emotion. When seeing your sadness, you can swipe your hand above the projector to float all negativity away into the river as a metaphor of releasing sadness and starting new life in the next coming year.