Bompas and Parr: The Craft of Designing Vice for All Five Senses

“I look at history, permissiveness, touch and taste, understanding of the body or how humans interact in a pub. I find that much more useful than looking at what’s happening in other companies,” Sam Bompas says of the new services he’s following within the business of Vice. “Everyone talks about multisensory but nothing is as multi sensory as smoking a joint, or taking alcohol or having sex.”

PSFK Labs speaks exclusively with one half of the culinary-wizarding company Bompas and Parr, an expert in designing interactive experiences to stimulate an audience, in anticipation of the Virtues of Vice Debrief. 

With the expertise of drug historians, scientists, chefs and more, the UK-based duo examine attitudes towards and modern forms of vice to build them out as fully immersive installations. So, for instance, if you’ve ever aspired to inhale a misty cocktail through your eyes or lose yourself in a life-size labyrinth on a climactic journey to a woman’s G-Spot or get your mind-rocked (legally) by psychoactive plants, Bompas and Parr can make your wildest fantasies come true.


In 2014, the partners set up a series of workshops that look at plants as powerful drugs in London’s Royal Botanical Gardens. As a part of the Plant Connoissuers’ Club, one could expect to digest various stimulative psychoactive plants. To ensure each dose was safe enough to distribute so that “people weren’t walking around Kew Gardens and chopping their heads off,” public health services and multiple anthropologists were called in to collaborate on a formula that would produce a mild, psychoactive effect. Not only would participants walk away with a trip, but a new education of how drugs can be consumed and moderated.

“The view that we currently have of drugs is a very, very simplistic one that comes out of professionalization and a medical history where we pass chemicals at the disposal through pharmacists. Many critics and experts think that the 21st century might be viewed as primarily the only century in the history of mankind where we have prohibited a lot of drugs.”

The partners have also explored new opportunities for sex with Funland, an erotic fairground created in collaboration with the Museum of Sex which includes five immersive exhibitions that provide visitors with an orgasm-like rush of endorphins through a combination of stimulating aromas, physical sensations and visual elements. Funland is a blend of invention and provocation; the featured Jump for Joy lets adults live out their childhood fantasies in a bounce house made of over-sized breasts.
Sarah Forbes, Curator at the Museum of Sex said:

Bompas and Parr are really innovators within the world of food and beverage and have turned the medium into an art piece. At the installation, the audience can find a foreplay derby, golden cocks with wings, a maze which leads you to a woman’s G-Spot. . . .they inverted this idea of the carnival and worked with some wonderful academics to infuse and strengthen their artistic vision with history. As an institution, it was the perfect synergy of art, culture and education. An idea that we really investigate at the Museum is that as soon as there’s a new technology, it’s used for sex. Our overall experiences with technology has us demanding more: how people absorb knowledge and information has changed so we’re really excited to be at the forefront of this cutting-edge stage

Admittedly, Bompas doesn’t consider sex to be a vice – neither drugs nor alcohol, per say – but is passionate about brands speaking to these new, rousing forms of interaction within the industry of ‘vice’ or outside. And there’s certainly a desire and a market for these out of body-experiences mentioned: according to a J. Walter Thompson report published in 2013, 73% of millennials crave experiences that stimulate their senses.”

“I don’t think vice is what necessarily unifies drugs, sex and alcohol; it’s the fact that they’re bodily experiences. . . . that’s what we’ve spent our time doing at Bompas and Parr: trying to give people those experiences that are amazing, that are these phenomenal body experiences and that provide them with the raw material to be journalists in their own right. Even in a world where people can focus on having very narrow interests, what are the commonalities that unite us that we can all galvanize around? Every culture throughout all of history actually thinks about these out-of-body experiences,” Bompas continued.

From our new digital personas to health-driven lifestyles, Bompas has identified new consumer trends and attitudes that are impacting people’s expectations of and reactions to vice. Firstly, objects have lost their value; in a world populated by social media people can create and portray their self-identity through their experiences. Over and over, moments can be snapped and a story shared to the point than an outsider can “read someone’s self-identity and understand their personality through what they’re done versus what they own,” hence why consumers are gravitating towards these type of novel and sensory experiences. In extension, brands can completely re-imagine how they interact with their customers.

“The best companies are always looking to change up their agenda and give people something interesting, creative and phenomenal,” Bompas said. “I think you’ll see well-established companies following in the footsteps of more nimble innovators. With the market heading a new way around the delivery and supply of marijuana, there’s a kind of creative renaissance taking place in that area. Brands can look towards creating something that is desirable for a young, trendy consumer [for marijuana] like you would in a bar as well.”

Bompas and Parr
All Images: Bompas and Parr