You’re standing in pure sunlight in a crystal pavilion levitating over an infinite green melon patch. You move into the structure and pedestals rise from a platform, each one supporting a perfectly spherical green melon.
Meanwhile, a soothing disembodied narrator congratulates you: “We made this,” she says. “Together.”
Brooks is the artist constructing the very real backpack that will contain a “taste display” that pumps randomized liquid flavor combinations through an array of converging straws into the waiting mouths of players each time one approves of a particular melon’s sound and elects to take a taste.
“One of our goals is to be able to stream all of the information of what players choose as their perfect melon,” says Luu. “Then mix those and create an average flavor for the perfect melon that people can then taste.” The ultimate goal was to test and tweak the process over the summer and go live in September with the three artists donning lab coats and guiding players through the game, staged on a carpet of artificial grass.
The trio didn’t seem to think that the pandemic meant the end of the infinite quest for the perfect melon. The lab where Brooks worked had been shut down, but they had brought home a distillation unit and a VR headset and were continuing to work on the taste display. But, they say, “the reality is, people are not gonna be as open to interacting with this very strange, intimate interface.”
