Tumblr Tuesday: Microwhat artist tells us what it’s like to microwave everything and anything

Welcome to our twenty-seventh Tumblr Tuesday, where every Tuesday we celebrate our love of Tumblr by interviewing the mastermind behind a new blog. Tumblr, a New York City based startup, is like the FFFFound for the rest of the world. It’s as shareable and fast-paced as Twitter but populated with more inspiring text and rich images.

In January, we announced that Tumblr serves 120 million people and 15 billion pageviews every month! But Tumblr’s founder and CEO David Karp admits that one area the blogging network hasn’t performed well enough at thus far is content discovery – which is what our weekly column Tumblr Tuesday is all about.

For this week’s Tumblr Tuesday, we interviewed the prefers-to-remain-anonymous zap-happy brain behind Microwhat, a Tumblr that features before and after photos of microwaved everything.

CBM: When you aren’t zapping food what are you doing to pay rent?

Microwhat: Since I’m anonymous I guess it could be anything. Fighting crime? Graphic design?

CBM: What was the non-microwaved apple on the head moment for this Tumblr?

Microwhat: As a kid I would play with the microwave, basically doing the exact same thing I am doing now. A few months ago I was in a phase where my snack of choice was marshmallows microwaved for about 20 seconds, and while I was eating them and surfing the Tumblr-sphere, it just clicked. I could see the idea so clearly and figured Tumblr would be the perfect platform. It made sense.

CBM: How many total foods have you microwaved?

Microwhat: Out of 64 Microwhats, 48 of them have been food. I’m planning on venturing more into non-food territory, but I need to buy a new microwave first.

CBM: What’s the most surprising thing that you’ve learned from this experience?

Microwhat: Chocolate doesn’t melt, it smokes and burns. Toothpaste is loud. Bubblegum has an instantaneous cement-like grip on microwave interiors. Mascara bristles are metal. Soap grows into lovely cloud shapes. Oh, the glow-sticks! They get brighter! I want to try glow-sticks for longer, but like I said before – need the new microwave. Something else that has been tricky that I’ve learned, is that the microwaves are aimed to the center of the plate, so a lot of things I put in there will start smoking in the middle before the outer parts have been affected, which is really frustrating compositionally. I’m learning all sorts of quirky things all the time.

CBM: What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever microwaved?

Microwhat: The SPAM was pretty terrible. It was in the microwave for about a total of 20 minutes I think. The SMELL was outrageous. It was what I would imaging body parts in plastic on fire to smell like. The spam gave me the idea to go out and get a mask for future micro-adventures. There have been some messes that were pretty gross. The jawbreaker gum-balls were definitely the worst. I won’t put gum in the microwave again. It took way, way, way too long to clean and was very discouraging. Lipstick was also a terrible mess, couldn’t really get it off the plate or my hands. Old Spice smelt terrible. I didn’t think that one through in terms of smell. I get too excited about what it will look like to consider the other side effects. Candy hearts were wild. I was not expecting them to turn black, that was pretty gross.

CBM: Have you ever eaten anything after you’ve microwaved it for this project? If so, what?

Microwhat: Ha! Good question! Yes I have….. most of the chocolate things I have eaten around the burnt part. I couldn’t help but try the gummy bears, which essentially tasted the same, but were way messier. And the marshmallows of course.

CBM: What are your thoughts on whether or not microwaving food is bad for the human body?

Microwhat: Well it’s probably NOT GOOD for the human body. I don’t really know the scientific details of how the machine works, but it has some pretty crazy results when it comes to zapping food. I still use the microwave to heat up or instant cook food when I’m feeling lazy. It’s too convenient not to! I admire people that cook (for real) all of their own food, it’s probably much better for you. I try to as well, but sometimes there are those lazy days….

Hope you enjoyed this! Check out all of our Tumblr Tuesdays from weeks’ past, here.