Tropicalia synthesised or the making of non-sensuous correspondences

ABSTRACT

‘If you think flavour talk is always imprecise, imagine talking about a tropical aroma’, Susana, a flavourist, once said. Thinking along and about the world of synthetic tropical flavours, this essay sets out to explore their mimetic potential, as artefacts that are clearly intentioned to stand for a second nature they represent imperfectly and independently. A paradise punch candy might take as reference the amalgamated flavours of pineapple and coconut, but being part of a collective manufacturing process it ends up delivering new standardised sensations, much as the ironwork of Benjamin's Paris in The Arcades Project creates the city anew, along with human nature. Synthetic flavours, like other constructive materials, follow Benjamin's notion of non-sensuous correspondence, demonstrating mimetic potentials that need to be explored outside a simple conception of the artificial as that which is by principle faux and devalued as parasitic.

KEYWORDS:

• Synthetic flavours
• non-sensuous correspondence
• mimetic faculty
• aromatics
• second nature

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ana María Ulloa obtained her doctorate in Anthropology from the New School for Social Research. In her dissertation she explored how flavour has acquired salience as an object of science, industry, and gastronomy. She conducted multi-sited fieldwork in the United States and Spain in locales as diverse as scientific research institutions, multinational flavour companies, and high-end restaurants.

ORCID

Ana María Ulloa http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8076-673X