Event Details

This family friendly event features a virtual tour of a sensory exhibit at the Eden Project designed to highlight the complex social issues around vanilla production and explore whether our increasing knowledge of how products are produced actually changes what we buy.

Ben Neimark has teamed up with Eden Project Cornwall to turn their collection of vanilla vines in the Tropical Rainforest Biome into an interactive mini vanilla plantation and exhibition, to offer people a deeper understanding of the uncertainty and civil strife surrounding its production.

The vanilla pergola gives people a sensory experience of what it is like to be on a vanilla plantation in Madagascar, with the smell of vanilla plants and a soundscape of a plantation, including the calls of lemurs which are common there.

Raising awareness of vanilla cultivation and trade in Madagascar and highlighting the complex social issues around vanilla production. The talk will also explore whether the sensory exhibit will influence consumer behaviour and discuss the relationship between violence, gendered labour and global consumption.

Everyone is welcome - This is a family friendly event and we will be serving vanilla ice cream!