Burton Nitta

Burton Nitta is an Anglo-Japanese, transdisciplinary art and design studio based in London, created by Michael Burton & Michiko Nitta. The two artists have been creating work since 2010 (Burton Nitta, 2020) and in 2021 were awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts by the Solent University.

Much of their work looks at food consumption and its environmental impact, which interlinks with notions around human evolution and what this will look like. The work is informed through collaborations with researchers and educators in science and technology.  Burton Nitta are published and exhibited internationally, including MoMA New York, Pompidou Centre  Paris, V&A Museum London and RA London.

Their 2017 series Food Fictions was a series of videos and still images, made in collaboration with Kings College London, actors and nutritionists, which examined the subliminal impact of food images shared on social media. In explaining the work, Burton and Nitta ask the question

“should we be more aware of how our sophisticated and subliminal sense around food imagery could have biological effects such as higher BMI or be used to influence our behaviour from politics to identity formation?" (Burton Nitta, 2017)                                                         ‘

As an example, one video employs fantasy food creations where a range of brightly coloured, unhealthy foods are combined into a garish concoction which is then divided and destroyed by robot devices.

The garish colours and outlandish styling served to alienate me from such consumption. Another video featured a documentary/advertisement extolling the virtues of a vegan diet for bodybuilders, from the manufacturer of vegan bodybuilding supplements.  I found this easier to engage with, however, the underlying “soft-sell” from the presenter created a barrier to my acceptance of his messaging.

It is not a surprise to me that I respond better to less creative means of communicating, and that the informational videos were my preferred approach. I thought that I would respond most to first-person presentations, where the delivery appears to be face-to-face, however watching the sequence of videos on the Burton Nitta website I discovered the indirect messaging using voice-over delivered against calming video and sound effects was more easily absorbed and understood.

BURTON, M., M. NITTA, n.d. Projects by Michael Burton & Michiko Nitta [Viewed 15/10/2024]. Available from: https://www.burtonnitta.co.uk/index.html