In Taste the Changing Forest, the forest speaks to us in flavors.
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Abundant Futures x Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
November 10, 2025
This flavor installation translates research into an experience designed to explore how a warming climate is reshaping the sweetness of Northeastern woods. As winters grow milder and freeze–thaw cycles become less predictable, the traditional maple syrup season shortens and shifts. In response, some producers and researchers are experimenting with other sap-bearing trees — like birch, whose season often follows maple, and black walnut, to extend the tapping window in warmer zones — tracing new calendars and shapes of sweetness.
I developed this experience in collaboration with local producers, translating data from the changing forest into sensory media across taste, smell, and vision.
This project was created in collaboration with the following producers:
- Mike Farrell and Dwight Poler, Co-Founders of The Forest Farmers. I featured their novel production method Birch Syrup as well as their Apple Cider Syrup, Grade A Maple Syrup, and Maple Flakes.
- Chef Alyssa Lieberman, Executive Pastry Chef, New City MicroCreamery. Alyssa and I developed a custom flavor using syrups from The Forest Farmers.
- Claire Cheney, Owner of Curio Spice Co. We created a custom spice blend translated from forest flavors.
- Chef Tracy Chang, Owner of Pagu, made a granola blend featuring maple.
- In addition to the my perfume that translated our Taste the Forest spice blend into a Smell the Forest scent, I featured two custom blends by multidisciplinary studio artist, Zoe Friend, Loam and ICA Spice.
Thank you to Alan Ricks, Founding Principal of Mass Design Group, for featuring this project in Abundant Futures at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston.