Food is the driving force of the human material dimension. Historically, food has always been more than a biological necessity. From antiquity to the contemporary era, the act of eating has constituted a fundamental existential, social, and cultural process, as it has never been limited solely to the satisfaction of organic needs. On the contrary, it has structured relationships, produced meanings, organized communities, and functioned as a field of encounter between body, identity, and culture.
From antiquity onward, philosophical thought has turned to the significance of nourishment and its hylomorphic dimension. Aristotle held that nutrition is one of the functions of the soul and a decisive one. The human being, as a deliberative and rational being guided by the rational part of the soul, possesses this capacity, which is inherent in the nutritive part of the soul. The remaining living beings—animals and plants—according to Aristotle, although they do not possess the rational part of the soul, are nevertheless driven by the nutritive part of the soul, which governs instinct and impels them toward life.[1]
Food, since ancient times, did not constitute a mere means of biological sustenance and satiety, but a mode of expression of human existence and entire cultures. Eating and drinking were the most exemplary occasions of existential tension, offering gustatory, olfactory, as well as visual pleasure and aesthetic enjoyment.
Already in antiquity, within the symposia, food did not function as a mere process of consumption but as a means of constituting a shared world of experience and meaning. In Plato’s Symposium, for instance, eating gradually becomes nourishment for thought, while communal presence produces dialectic, knowledge, and sociability. “Eating together” (syn-trōgein) did not simply constitute a practice of coexistence but a deeper form of appropriation, functioning as a connective link between body and mind.[2] From this perspective, eating does not merely nourish the organism in biological terms (Körper—the body as an object with organs, mass, and functions), but also constitutes it as lived corporeality (Leib—the body as a subject that feels and acts).
This distinction becomes even more significant in light of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology. For Merleau-Ponty, the body is not an object we possess but the very way we exist in the world. It is the medium of perception and relation to reality; we do not “have” a body, we “are” our body.[3] Consequently, taste, smell, touch, and the overall sensory experience of food constitute an embodied relation to the world. Food, therefore, does not merely enter the organism; it simultaneously enters the horizon of lived experience.
However, the digital condition of late modernity appears to radically transform this relationship. Whereas traditionally food was associated with participation and lived experience, today it is increasingly no longer exclusively an object of experience but becomes a visual and informational object. In contemporary digital culture, consumption concerns not only the ingestion of food but also the consumption of images of food. It is precisely at this point that the mukbang phenomenon emerges as a characteristic expression of this transition.
Mukbang, which first appeared in South Korea, consists of the live or recorded consumption of large quantities of food in front of an audience. Millions of users watch content creators eat, often for hours, while interacting with them. Contemporary studies show that watching mukbang is associated with feelings of companionship, reduced loneliness, and forms of digital sociality.[4] At the same time, however, it may influence eating behaviors and perceptions of the body.[5]
Nevertheless, mukbang does not constitute a simple transmission of food consumption. Rather, it is an performative form of spectacle, where eating is transformed into a staged act and the body into a medium for digital content production. Excess functions as the central mechanism of spectacle: extreme quantities of food, enlarged portions, intense reactions, and hyper-sensory stimuli organize an experience primarily designed for visual consumption.
At the same time, several studies as well as journalistic analyses indicate that a significant portion of such content may involve editing techniques, sponsorships, and constructed forms of authenticity. In other words, some creators may not actually consume the quantities presented but instead rely on cuts, selective editing, or other staging techniques.[6]
This observation gains particular theoretical significance, as food is here transformed into an image of food. The act of eating is detached from bodily materiality and reorganized as spectacle. At this very point, Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra becomes especially relevant. According to Baudrillard, contemporary society is characterized by the dominance of signs that no longer represent reality but gradually replace it.[7]
Thus, mukbang does not simply present food; it presents a hyperreal version of consumption. We no longer watch a meal but the simulation of a meal. The image becomes more real than the event itself, while the body appears to consume less the food itself and more its representation. In this way, consumption becomes a sign, and the sign becomes experience.
In parallel, the ASMR dimension further intensifies this transition. ASMR mukbang videos focus on the sounds of consumption: chewing, crunchy textures, swallowing sounds, and micro-acoustic details. As a result, food is no longer perceived through taste but through sound.[8]
Consequently, the body is sensorially reconfigured. Gustatory experience is replaced by a remote sensory simulation. The viewer does not eat but feels as if they are participating in the process. Experience thus becomes post-embodied. One could even argue that a new phenomenology of consumption emerges here: not the experience of taste, but the experience of reproduced sensation.
This process is directly connected to Michel Foucault’s biopolitical analysis. Foucault argued that modern societies exercise power not only through institutions but also through the disciplining of the body. From this perspective, the body is organized, regulated, and monitored through mechanisms that shape behaviors and modes of existence.[9]
In the case of mukbang, the body functions simultaneously as an object of consumption and as a tool of production. Content creators transform corporeality into digital labor, while food consumption is organized according to the algorithmic rules of platforms: video duration, views, sponsorships, engagement, and commercial strategies. Thus, the body is increasingly disciplined not only by institutions but also by algorithms.[10]
This algorithmic transition culminates when food itself ceases to be a purely material object and becomes information. A characteristic example is PizzaGAN, a generative adversarial network system developed at MIT.
PizzaGAN analyzes images of pizza by decomposing them into constituent elements: dough, sauce, cheese, toppings, and ingredients. Consequently, pizza is no longer treated as a gastronomic object but as a visual dataset. This process reveals a deeper epistemological shift. Food is no longer perceived through taste, touch, or smell, but becomes an object of computational recognition. In other words, its meaning is produced through algorithmic analysis.
If mukbang transforms consumption into spectacle, then PizzaGAN transforms food into data. Food no longer appears as edible matter but as information.
This transformation is part of a broader process of datafication, in which everyday experience is converted into digital traces and computational categories. Within this framework, taste becomes recognizable patterns, the body becomes biometric data, and experience becomes algorithmic prediction.[11]
At the same time, contemporary reality presents a profound paradox: while food is massively overexposed digitally, millions of people still lack access to basic nutritional goods. The coexistence of overconsumption, obesity, and undernutrition represents one of the greatest contradictions of our time. Thus, the image of abundance coexists with the reality of scarcity.
At this point, a deeper philosophical question emerges: what happens when food is detached from the experience of the Leib and becomes exclusively an object of visual consumption?
Within these transformations, a fundamental shift in the way humans relate to food becomes visible. From the ancient Greek symposium to ASMR mukbang, and from Merleau-Ponty’s embodied experience to the algorithmic decomposition of PizzaGAN, a historical displacement can be observed: food gradually ceases to be a shared experience and becomes a digital representation.
Through this trajectory, a deeper transformation of the very ontology of consumption becomes apparent. Food is no longer only food; it becomes data, image, spectacle, and information. Perhaps, ultimately, the most crucial question of our time is not what humans eat, but whether humans still inhabit the experience of food—or whether they now inhabit its algorithmic representations.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Αριστοτέλης. Περί Ψυχής. Μτφρ. Β. Ν. Τατάκη. Αθήνα: Ε&Μ Ζαχαρόπουλου, 1939, Βιβλίο 2ο, 413b–414a.(Aristotle’s “On the Soul,” Book II, passages 413b–414a, where he discusses the nutritive function of the soul as the most basic capacity shared by all living beings.)
Baudrillard, Jean. The Conspiracy of Art: Manifestos, Interviews, Essays. New York: Semiotext(e), 2005. (σσ. 101–103, 115–116, 123, 141, 171–173)
Foucault, Michel. Επιτήρηση και τιμωρία: Η γέννηση της φυλακής. Αθήνα: Πλέθρον, 2011.
Jiang, N., Khong, K. W., Chen, M., Khoo, K. L., Xavier, J. A., & Jambulingam, M. (2024). Why am I obsessed with viewing mukbang ASMR? PLOS ONE, 19(9), e0308549. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0308549
Kircaburun, K., Calado, F., Harris, A., & Griffiths, M. D. (2024). Addictive symptoms of mukbang watching. Emerging Trends in Drugs, Addictions, and Health, 4, 100147.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.etdah.2024.100147
Kircaburun, K., Savcı, M., Emirtekin, E., & Griffiths, M. D. (2022). Uses and gratifications of problematic mukbang watching. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 146, 28–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.12.036
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Φαινομενολογία της αντίληψης. Αθήνα: Νήσος, 2016. (Πρωτότυπη έκδοση 1945)
Niu, S., Manon, H. S., Bartolome, A., Ha, N. B., & Veazey, K. (2022). Close-up and whispering: ASMR and parasocial interaction. arXiv.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.06839
Papadopoulos, D. P., Tamaazousti, Y., Ofli, F., Weber, I., & Torralba, A. (2019). How to make a pizza: Learning a compositional layer-based GAN model. arXiv.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.02839
Πλάτων. Συμπόσιον. Μτφρ. Ι. Συκουτρής. Αθήνα: Εστία, 2009 (α’ έκδ. 1934).
(Plato’s “Symposium,” a philosophical dialogue on eros, knowledge, and communal experience, often interpreted as linking bodily practices such as eating and drinking to intellectual and social formation.)
Sultana, S. F. S., & Das, M. (2022). Content analysis of mukbang videos. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 6(9), 4811–4822.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368917137_Content_Analysis_Of_Mukbang_Videos_Preferences_Attitudes_And_Concerns
[1] Αριστοτέλης. Περί Ψυχής. Μτφρ. Β. Ν. Τατάκη. Αθήνα: Ε&Μ Ζαχαρόπουλου, 1939, Βιβλίο 2ο, 413b–414a.(Aristotle’s “On the Soul,” Book II, passages 413b–414a, where he discusses the nutritive function of the soul as the most basic capacity shared by all living beings.)
[2] Πλάτων. Συμπόσιον. Μτφρ. Ι. Συκουτρής. Αθήνα: Εστία, 2009 (α’ έκδ. 1934). (Plato’s “Symposium,” a philosophical dialogue on eros, knowledge, and communal experience, often interpreted as linking bodily practices such as eating and drinking to intellectual and social formation.)
[3] Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Φαινομενολογία της αντίληψης. Μετάφραση Κική Καψαμπέλη. Αθήνα: Νήσος, 2016. Πρωτότυπη έκδοση 1945, Gallimard. (“Phenomenology of Perception,” a foundational phenomenological work in which Merleau-Ponty argues that the body is not an object but the primary medium of human experience and perception.)
[4] Kircaburun, K., Savcı, M., Emirtekin, E., & Griffiths, M. D. (2022). “Uses and gratifications of problematic mukbang watching – The role of eating and social gratification: A pilot study”. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 146, 28–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.12.036
[5] Jiang, N., Khong, K. W., Chen, M., Khoo, K. L., Xavier, J. A., & Jambulingam, M. (2024). Why am I obsessed with viewing mukbang ASMR? The roles of mediated voyeurism and intertemporal choice. PLOS ONE, 19(9), e0308549. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0308549
[6] Sultana, S. F. S., & Das, M. (2022). “Content analysis of mukbang videos: Preferences, attitudes and concerns”. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 6(9), 4811–4822. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368917137_Content_Analysis_Of_Mukbang_Videos_Preferences_Attitudes_And_Concerns
[7] J., Baudrillard, The Conspiracy of Art: Manifestos, Interviews, Essays, ed. Sylvère Lotringer, trans. Ames Hodges (New York: Semiotext(e), 2005), σσ. 101–103, 115–116, 123, 141, 171–173.
[8] Niu, S., Manon, H. S., Bartolome, A., Ha, N. B., & Veazey, K. (2022). Close-up and whispering: An understanding of multimodal and parasocial interactions in YouTube ASMR videos. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.06839
[9] M., Foucault, Επιτήρηση και τιμωρία: Η γέννηση της φυλακής. Μετάφραση Τάσος Μπέτζελος. Αθήνα: Πλέθρον, 2011. Πρωτότυπη έκδοση Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison, Gallimard, 1975, κεφ. 1, σ σ. 20-39.
[10] Kircaburun, K., Calado, F., Harris, A., & Griffiths, M. D. (2024). “Addictive symptoms of mukbang watching: A qualitative interview study using directed content analysis”. Emerging Trends in Drugs, Addictions, and Health, 4, 100147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.etdah.2024.100147
[11] Papadopoulos, D. P., Tamaazousti, Y., Ofli, F., Weber, I., & Torralba, A. (2019). How to make a pizza: Learning a compositional layer-based GAN model. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.02839
