Eat with your Ears: A Practical Guide to Designing Experiences With Taste & Sound (Early)
Immersive experiences are too often reduced to screens. To create lasting, mind‑shifting states, we have to design beyond vision. However when we combine taste and sound…
Vision is overloaded. Sound – one of our fastest, most immediate channels – cuts through the noise.
Eating is our most intimate ritual. For millennia, shared meals have anchored memory, community, and meaning.
In this Campfire, Caroline Hobkinson – sensory designer, anthropologist, and immersive director – shows how taste and sound interact to alter perception, deepen memory, and drive meaning. You’ll discover how audio modulates perceived sweetness, bitterness, texture, and tempo – and when you should use it.
You’ll leave with practical tools to unlock memory, heighten awareness, and calibrate a new mind-body axis – tools you can apply immediately to make your current project more memorable, measurable, and moving.
Who this is for:
- Experience designers and producers
- Brand/creative strategists
- Storytellers
- F&B and hospitality innovators
- Cultural programmers
- Anyone shaping experiences that move people.
In a world shaped by algorithms, we still choose what passes our lips. It is the last bastion of radical agency. Join Caroline for a high-velocity dive into perception and sensory awakening…
About Caroline Hobkinson:
Born in Cologne and trained at Central Saint Martins (Fine Art) and SOAS (MA Anthropology), Caroline creates sensory installations and experiences in galleries, museums, and public spaces worldwide. She has published and co‑authored research on the neuroscientific workings of eating behaviour and conducted qualitative studies into food and drink rituals. A Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, she operates at the intersections of tech, food, and the senses, delivering interactive talks and lectures internationally.
How to watch this Campfire:
- Link to sign up for this Campfire (WXO members only)
- To join the WXO, please head to our Application page
- The WXO is a global home for the leaders, shapers and doers in the Experience Economy
- As a member, you’ll get live access to Campfires like this one plus unlock an on demand library of over 100 Campfire recordings
Timings
Campfire #1 is suitable for those in the APAC region or Europe, but everyone is welcome! Here’s when we kick off in your time zone:
London: 9:55 – 11:25 (BST)
Paris: 10:55 – 12:25 (CEST)
Dubai: 12:55 – 14:25 (GST)
Mumbai: 14:25 – 15:55 (IST)
Shanghai / Singapore: 16:55 – 18:25 (CST/SGT)
Tokyo: 17:55 – 19:25 (JST)
Sydney: 18:55 – 20:25 (AEST)
Auckland: 20:55 – 22:25 (NZST)