MA DESIGN






EXPANDED PRACTICE    

Recipe for Desire 
                        
Xinyu Liu
@beagleliu


A Recipe for Desire examines how food imagery trains the human senses. In a dual feedback loop, the images people upload and ‘like’ shape algorithms, while the algorithms in turn reshape our perception of what counts as “delicious.”

Through community practices, visual experiments, and research into AI image generation, the work traces how “taste” has become an encoded process. From community kitchens to data filters, it asks: Who decides what is “tasty,” “desirable,” or “visible”?
 
The project transforms everyday food photographs into algorithmically altered surfaces, revealing how pleasure is designed and standardized. It invites viewers to “re-chew” their sensory responses and recognize that contemporary desire is no longer merely bodily, but mediated and collectively performed.