IN 1600, THE WEDDING of Marie de’ Medici and Henry IV, king of France, became the stuff of legend—and not simply because the epic banquet encompassed 50 courses. The real surprise came when the nearly 300 guests in attendance picked up their napkins and, in each case, a songbird flew out from beneath the folds.  Centuries later, the idea of unleashing starlings and swallows on your dinner guests may sound like cruel and unusual punishment (or at least an invitation to a lawsuit), but the instinct to charm your friends with a dramatic table setting remains strong. If you’re still relying on your standard strategies—a vase of African daisies, a scattering of votive candles—it may be time to up your game. Recent years have seen the rise of high-profile, promotional events—dubbed “culinary happenings”—in which dinner is given a contemporary-art twist. Redefining the very idea of a table setting, these parties could inspire anyone to rethink his or her entertaining routine.  To add an element of drama to a Parisian dinner for Hermès in 2012, artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas gave attendees small hammers to break open one of the dishes: a pot-au-feu encased in a brick of hard clay. At the Brooklyn Museum’s annual Artists Ball last year, 16 artists were asked to create interactive tabletops. In one, conceptual prankster Nina Katchadourian had her table guests twist napkins into a variety of Flemish Renaissance millinery styles. All one needed was a white napkin, a sense of humor and a mood board of Jan van Eyck paintings for inspiration.  These sorts of dinners—featuring table settings that upend notions of what’s expected of a guest—create “more opportunities to think beyond the visual and communicate with our senses,” said artist and designer Emilie Baltz, a leader in conceptual dining. In her “Traces” series at Hotel Particulier last year for New York’s Armory Art Show, she eliminated all the décor, plates and utensils: Chefs walked on an otherwise empty plank-wood table and served “dinner”—an abstract sculpture made from ribbons of beets, with a choice of radicchio beds or rolled arancini—which was then eaten by hand. “In a world that’s flat in screens, we need these sensory landscapes,” said Ms. Baltz.  A sense of humor is at the heart of these radical rethinks of the traditional table setting. “Times have been tough, and we’re all looking for reprieve,” said Toronto-based Colette van den Thillart, who as British decorator Nicky Haslam’s right-hand-designer since 2003, has created tabletops for Cartier, the Windsor Polo Club and London’s National Gallery. “I’m seeing that the pendulum is swinging to more layering, more complexity, more joy, more whimsicality,” she said.  This week, the Toronto museum Design Exchange opened “Dinner by Design,” an exhibition for which 11 Canadian designers of all disciplines have filled the institution’s home, the historic Trading Floor Hall in the former Toronto Stock Exchange, with table-setting installations. Creating a tabletop is “an aspect of design that’s fun and approachable for everyone,” said Shauna Levy, the museum’s president.  Candice Chan and Alison Slight, the Canadian event designers who go by Candice & Alison, took inspiration for their Design Exchange table from Truman Capote’s 1966 “Black and White Ball” in Manhattan—specifically the socialite guests that Mr. Capote dubbed “swans,” from Babe Paley to Gloria Guinness. “Each chair has an identity,” said Ms. Slight, “and there will be a scroll that’ll tell her story.”  Ms. Van Den Thillart, another participant in the exhibition, often channels her current obsessions when creating a setting that has a big wow factor. For one arrangement, she drew on the witty American furniture designer John Dickinson, conceptual artist Daniel Arsham, Surrealism and the color white. (“Picasso said it was the most intellectual of all colors,” she said.)  For the “One Night in Tehran” setting that Candice & Alison created for the cover of this week’s Off Duty, the designers started with images of Elizabeth Taylor’s 1976 voyage to Iran. The result: a mélange of Middle Eastern-inspired textiles, lattice-patterned dinnerware and an array of fresh calla lilies presented in vessels of different shapes and sizes, instead of clustered more predictably in one central vase.  Creating a conversation-starting place setting can be a cure for the too-many-iPhones-at-the-table conundrum as well. That approach fuels Francesca Sarti, a Milan-based food designer who concocts inventive culinary experiences for design brands, such as J. Hill, and art spaces like the Serpentine Gallery in London. “Using a different sort of tool is an opportunity to create a playground,” said Ms. Sarti, whose firm, Arabeschi di Latte, once staged a dinner in Milan for an Italian hardware manufacturer using screwdrivers, palette knives and wrenches for a whimsical take on standard cutlery.  While your mother-in-law may react poorly to the prospect of eating linguine Alfredo with a pair of needle nose pliers, using décor the “wrong” way is the sort of move even the faint of heart can try at home, suggested Diana Perrin, co-founder of tabletop design firm Casa de Perrin, in Los Angeles. “Repurposing things in ways that they aren’t meant to be used can add depth to a table,” she said—for example, serving an amuse-bouche in a Champagne coupe or a dessert course on a charger. “A tiny molten lava cake with all that space around it can be really dramatic,” she said.  Incorporating elements of nature into your setting also adds theatricality without devolving into gimmickry. Alberto Pellini and Eleonora Negri, owners of Milanese design hub Spazio Pontaccio, staged a 50-person dinner during their city’s annual design fair last April that doubled as a sly marketing tool: Each piece of tabletop décor was an exclusive product the pair were set to release—geometric-patterned plates from Le Dictateur designer Federico Pepe, gold cutlery by industrial designer Alessandro Zambelli and crystal barware by young British design talent Lee Broom. But it was the large, waxy leaves the duo used as place mats that delighted their diners most. One can easily replicate this trick at home with either banana or lotus leaves, both readily found online.  “Nature is so varied,” said Robin Standefer of New York team Roman and Williams, the designers responsible for the interiors of the Ace Hotel New York and the Standard New York—and some renowned dinner parties. “It’s an endless source for a table of excitement that works in any country, any city, any climate.” Ms. Standefer and her partner, Stephen Alesch, said they get many of their table-setting ideas from their natural surroundings. “Go get a branch from outside,” said Mr. Alesch. “Get leaves from a tree. When you’re at the beach, get a stack of beach rocks. Stick the clam shells all around the table.”  The one thing to watch out for is overindulgence. “Be disciplined,” cautioned Mr. Alesch. “You can’t throw everything you love into a pile.” And keep it lighthearted. “There’s nothing like a wonderful dinner party to make you feel happy,” said Ms. Van Den Thillart. “And if you do a table that’s a little irreverent and whimsical, it sets the mood. You’re saying, ‘Let’s go for it.’ ”
To create a memorable dining experience, take inspiration from the new wave of ‘culinary happenings’—parties that push tabletop design to new heights.