The Flaming Lips’ bizarre gummy skull album packaging may have just been beaten for weirdness and taste with what may well be the world’s first edible song.
A new piece of performance art that was recently showcased at the Digital Design Weekend at the V&A, has made the figure of speech ‘so you good you could eat it’ a reality; the only catch being that you had best enjoy a bit of Opera… and seaweed.
According to After Agri, the design company who helped put it all together, The Algae Opera contains what may be the world’s first edible song. A collaborative project between artists Michiko Nitta and Michael Burton, the performance features mezzo-soprano Louise Ashcroft wearing that rather bulbous looking mask above – which is in fact a piece of biotechnology that breeds algae.
The algae “which are a photosynthetic plant-like organism, feeds on the carbon dioxide in the singer’s breath,” with the mask feeding the growth of the algae through her singing and breathing. By the end of the performance, to demonstrate its importance as a “future food source,” the audience are encourage to “taste her song” by eating the photosynthetic material right off the opera singer’s face.
The designer-artists behind The Algae Opera also explain that “the composition of the song and the singer’s vocal technique are redesigned to specifically produce algae and enrich its taste. To do this, the composer and singer use the new science of sonic enhancement of food where different pitches and frequencies make food taste either bitter or sweet.”
Does this mean we can expect a future where singers become the most reliable source of food? Just imagine a world where our pop stars are expected to be clean enough to eat off of rather than just their technical skill. Some of rock’s scungier looking acts may have to actually start shaving (or even wash)!
At the very least, don’t be surprised if The Flaming Lips take ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’ to heart and start performing concerts where you have to eat their tunes right off of Wayne Coyne’s grizzled wizard visage. Ahhh, the future.
You can take a look at some further detail of the biotechnological, alien-looking algae mask below:
