Background: Every culture has developed its own techniques for pickling and fermentation. Microorganisms cause food to spoil and decay, but humans have also established a cooperative relationship with them in preserving and processing food. The production of pickled and fermented food is a quintessential process of change. Chemistry is the study of change and the art of waiting.

Experiment: The original concept involved applying electrochromic films to the exterior of the glass jars, with infrared sensors that would trigger the entire column of jars to change to gold when an observer approaches. Further investigation revealed that current electrochromic technology necessitates the presence of electrolyte liquid throughout the interior of the jars, which would inevitably render the pickled products within inedible. Thus, the initial concept was not feasible.

Procedure: A collection of glass jars is purchased and stacked vertically to form an infinite column. Within each jar, chemical transformations of one kind of food is taking place. This includes the pickling of various vegetables like radishes and peppers, the creation of malt sugar, fermented bean curd, and the aging of citrus peel into dried tangerine peel, among others.