What Do You Have a Taste For?

Giant BLT, Claes Oldenberg (MOMA)

This is a common question around dinnertime.

In Sartre's Psychology of the Imagination, he describes his experience of "Entoptic Lights", visual artifacts resulting from damage to the optic nerve from a flu virus he had in childhood. It is essentially a form of "acquired synesthesia."

"About half an hour after going to bed I see a number of brilliant pointed stars and bizarre forms every time I close my eyes, from among which I particularly recall those that had appeared most frequently, whether on a small or large scale: a broken line formed irregular teeth of a saw, the whole comprising an irregular circular space." (p. 65)

We all have some acquired synesthesia that naturally occurs in the imagination. When we get a taste for something we re-imagine the experience and perhaps wrap it in metaphors. It's a "preview" that gets played in the mind, or "tour" as he describes it:

"We must learn objects, that is to say, multiply upon them the possible points of view. The object itself is the synthesis of all these appearances. The perception of an object is thus a phenomenon of an infinity of aspects. What does this mean for us? It means that we must make a tour of objects..." (p. 9)

All desire is created equal

All sensory experiences are figments of imagination and also a form of desire. Having ideas about making art, or actively making art are both consummations of desire. But "tastes" are typically short-durational impulses whereas art is more long-durational. Even looking at art is potentially a long-durational accounting for the time making it and the accumulated history: You might have glanced at it for 10 seconds, but there could be 500 years that you witnessed.

But the forms we ultimately create are usually not what we had a "taste for". When we are involved in a creative act, the “taste” emerges from the assemblage of raw ingredients, which is different from a manufactured experience of eating meals made for you. It's easy as a consumer to satiate one's tastes by eating at restaurants that make things that consistently satisfy. Making something for intrinsic rewards can take months or years. But it all redounds to the same imagined desire, satisfied or not.