Tableware as Sensorial Stimuli & Sensory Appetizer, J I N hyun Jeon

Tableware as Sensorial Stimuli project by Jinhyun Jeon involves a series of cutlery pieces designed to enhance the experience of eating. Under the belief that ‘cutlery should do more than merely placing food in our mouth’ Jinhyun Jeon looks at the world of synaesthesia as a means to inform and bring her design work to a different level. Synaesthesia -as explained by Jeon- is a neurological condition where stimulus to one sense can affect one or more of the other senses. With this phenomenon underpinning her design process, Jinhyun Jeon’s pieces are created following ‘tasty’ formulas that combine the 5 elements of temperature, colour, texture, volume/ weight and form.

J I N hyun Jeon explains in her website: ‘The materials in the design currently compose of metal, plastic and ceramics. Each material possesses its natural temperature, which works in harmony with the intent of the design. From the thickness of the handle to the volume mass of the spoon, it evokes a different effect. Weight distribution changes according to the thickness and the volume affects the sound vibration.’ Images: Sensory Appetizer & Tableware as Sensorial Stimuli, J I N hyun Jeon

Crafted to engage with and stimulate different senses, Jinhyun Jeon’s cutlery is an example of design work that responds to and interacts with the human body for which it is designed. The intended performativity of Jinhyun Jeon’s work distances her pieces from design that is based on aesthetic decisions only, and defines a language that is justified by its performance. Furthermore, by allowing more than only our taste buds to engage in the act of eating, Jinhyun Jeon enriches and expands the repertoire of what tableware can do, thus producing an innovation.

Tableware as Sensorial Stimuli & Sensory Appetizer, J I N hyun Jeon

Beyond the achievement of a particular performance, Jinhyun Jeon’s innovation represents the materialization of a vision, and as such the success of creative work. Tableware as sensorial stimuli proposes a disruption of pattern, a channel within our lives to a multi-sensorial experience. Through her proposal Jinhyun Jeon reminds both designers and users alike of the richness of physical experiences; crucially in times in which the visual and virtual seem to outweigh them.