FOOD OPERA EVENTS
on the sensations of beer (2018)
A multisensory dining experience that puts the writings of pioneering 19th century German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz in dialog with contemporary researchers and poets to explore the links between the senses of hearing and taste, taking place at BRLO BRWHOUSE in Berlin on September 20, 2018, as the official banquet of the fourth Web Audio Conference.
MUGARITZ XX (2018)
A special collaboration with Andoni Luis Aduriz and his team at Mugaritz in San Sebastián, Spain. To celebrate their twentieth anniversary, we designed a system of intelligent plates with embedded sensors and music playback devices. These plates network together to play music in response to diners' actions, accompanying a dish that resembles an acorn embedded in amber. The dish was first served on June 13, 2018, and will remain part of the 20+-course tasting menu for the rest of the year. More information about this unique project is forthcoming!
Le Dîner des Amazones (2018)
Our second collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and chef David Verdo, this work takes as its point of departure French Romantic composer Étienne Méhul's overture to his opera Les Amazones, presented as a pre-concert dining event at Symphony Hall, January 6 and 9, 2018.
quiver, pop and dissolve: three essays in gastromorphology (2017)
A collaboration with Jozef Youssef of Kitchen Theory in which the soundtrack to the dining experience was delivered via participants' mobile devices. Premiered at the third Web Audio Conference, Queen Mary University of London, August 21, 2017.
ploughman's lunch: an aural reconsideration (2017)
A collaboration with David Matchett of London's Borough Market. Premiered at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, July 9, 2017.
Music + Food Class (2017)
A complete summer semester course on the food opera project, presented through Berklee College of Music's Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship. Classes took places in Berklee's Dining Hall, and students worked with chefs on regular food scoring exercises in preparation for a final project scoring a four-course meal in collaboration with chefs at America's Test Kitchen.
cena concertante alla maniera di vivaldi (2017)
A culinary remix of Vivaldi's Piccolo Concerto in C, RV 443, developed in collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and chef David Verdo, presented as a pre-concert dining event at Symphony Hall, January 5 and 7, 2017.
Untitled cocktail #3 (2016)
November 30, 2016. A collaboration between Ben and Café ArtScience's award-winning bartender Todd Maul. Presented in the context of Ben's presentation "Food Opera: Exploring Audiogustatory Correspondences" at Le Laboratoire, part of the Non-Event curated 2016-2017 speaker series.
The Saint Paul Food Opera (2016)
October 6-8, 2016. A collaboration between composer Ben Houge, acclaimed new music ensemble Zeitgeist, and some of St. Paul's most well regarded chefs and food purveyors: Leonard Anderson of Tongue in Cheek; Adam Eaton of Saint Dinette; Cheyenne Broughton, pastry chef of Handsome Hog; Tracy Brice of Golden's Lowertown Deli; Izzy's Ice Cream; and Brake Bread. This event is supported by a Knight Foundation grant and a Berklee Faculty Fellowship. For more information visit http://www.zeitgeistnewmusic.org/saint-paul-food-opera.html.
The santa Croce Food Opera (2016)
Developed and presented as part of the First Crossmodalist Symposium, which took place on July 26-31, 2016, at Santa Croce, a former monastery on the outskirts of Batignano in Tuscany and home to British sculptor Emily Young. Sounds of the surrounding landscape blended with the voices and rituals of the community, accompanying a meal of local ingredients by Charles Michel, one of the Crossmodalism founders.
Vinfonies (2015)
Ben composed a new piece of music to accompany a 2012 Azul y Garanza Garciano as part of this annual event near Barcelona, September 24-27, 2015.
Opera Tech Workshop class (2015)
In the summer of 2015, Ben taught a class at Berklee College of Music’s Valencia campus, exploring the technology behind his food operas as well as the science and aesthetics of pairing music and food. Students presented their final projects in the context of an eight-course tasting menu at Quique Dacosta’s Michelin-starred restaurant El Poblet.
The Search for Metaphorical Matchings through Wine and Music (2015)
Ben collaborated with Janice Wang of Oxford University’s Crossmodal Research Laboratory and Alistair Cooper of 1855 Wine Bar on an event that paired music with six different wines as part of an experiment to see how sound affects the perception of taste, February 23, 2015.
Beside the White Chickens: A Summer Food Opera (2013)
Our third collaboration with chef Jason Bond took place at his Bondir restaurant in Cambridge, MA, on July 30, 2013. The five-course menu featured chicken supplied by Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds of Concord, MA, and was loosely inspired by William Carlos Williams’ poem “The Red Wheelbarrow,” with prominent contributions from sous chef Rachel Miller.
Sensing Terroir: A Harvest Food Opera (2012)
Our second collaboration with Jason Bond, and the first at Bondir, incorporated field recordings from the local farms that provide his ingredients and interviews with the farmers, presented via a 30-channel speaker array, considering a meal from the standpoint of sensory ethnography and applying the “farm to table” ethos to sound. The event took place on November 13, 2012.
Food Opera: Four Asparagus Compositions (2012)
Our first public event took place on May 22, 2012, our first collaboration with Jason Bond, as the final event in a food and design series at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, curated by Jutta Friedrichs, Lizzie MacWillie, and Sara Hendren.
Shanghai Workshop (2010)
While living in Shanghai, Ben invited a group of artists, curators, and friends to participate in a workshop presented in collaboration with chef Caroline Steger, developing an idea that had been gestating since 2006. Ben composed music based on the multicourse meal and influenced by the ensuing discussion, some of which was incorporated into the first public event at Harvard.
Additional Presentations
- Presentation at Boston Tech Poetics, July 10, 2018
- Science by the Pint: Original Gravity, a discussion hosted by Keith Kirchoff, hosted by Aeronaut Brewery (listen to the podcast here), January 18, 2018
- Food Opera presentation at HUBweek in Boston, including music paired with a chocolate mochi by chef Tracy Chang delivered via audience members' mobile phones, October 14, 2017
- "Web Audio in the Dining Room," presented at the third Web Audio Conference, Queen Mary University of London, August 21, 2017
- "The Sonic Landscape of Food: Imaginary Landscapes and Virtual Terroir," presented at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, July 9, 2017
- Workshop with La Fura dels Baus and Mugaritz, Badalona, Spain, July 2-5, 2017
- Music consulting for tasting events at Dr. Frank Winery in the Finger Lakes region of New York, in collaboration with Dr. Janice Wang of Oxford's Crossmodal Research Laboratory, summer 2017.
- Kitchen as Studio, Restaurant as Stage: Exploring the Links Between Music and Food, Berklee ICE Creative Entrepreneurs Conversation, a panel featuring Jason Bond, Tracy Chang, Brother Cleve, and Youji Iwakura, moderated by Ben Houge, Berklee College of Music, April 20, 2017
- Food Opera: Art, Technology, and Perception in the Dining Room, ArtTechPsyche III, Harvard University, April 20, 2017.
- Cooking up Ideas: A Conversation with Mugaritz, panel discussion at MIT, November 2, 2016
- The First Crossmodalist Symposium, Santa Croce, Batignano, Tuscany, Italy, July 26-31, 2016
- Percepción Sensorial y Arte Culinario in collaboration with Mugaritz, Miramar Palace, San Sebastián, July 13-15, 2016
- Art Technology New England, Boston Cyberarts Gallery, February 24, 2016
- Berklee Teachers on Teaching, including a three-course meal with musical accompaniment, developed in collaboration with chefs at Berklee’s new dining hall, January 11, 2016
- Hugo Boss fragrance event, in collaboration with chef Jozef Youssef of Kitchen Theory, London, England, November 17, 2015
- Chivas whisky tasting event with chef Jozef Youssef, London, England, September 16, 2015
- Presentation to the R&D team at Mugaritz, San Sebastián, Spain, August 7, 2015
- Presentation to the R&D team at the Fat Duck, Bray, England, June 29, 2015
- Oxford University, Crossmodal Research Laboratory, February 24, 2015
- Invisible Places Sounding Cities conference, Viseu, Portugal, July 18-20, 2014
- TEDx Berklee Valencia, Valencia, Spain, June 21, 2014
- The Second International Workshop on Musical Metacreation, Northeastern University, Boston, USA, October 14-15, 2013
- Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, presenting alongside chef Jason Bond as part of our first public food opera, May 22, 2012
