Artifact Three: Food
Objectives:
- Examine methods for evaluating qualities of art, such as product versus process, the difference between craft and fine art, must art be archival, and what is an aesthetic reaction.
- Explore the notion of food as an art form.
Original Post:
Food as art essay
The reading I find is called “How can food be art?”. This is a great reading, which has a close relationship with our course reading for this week. The author Glenn Kuehn is using this article as a response to Telfer’s assertions and also an attempt to further establish food as a very significant art form for people. Part of the article will talk about the effort that Telfer had to support the idea that food can be considered as art. Glenn was agreeing with Telfer for some points, but he also has his own idea about why we should view food as a form of art. Glenn’s view of food comes from the work of John Dewey and his notion of transformative aesthetic experience. The article has an analysis of response to Telfer’s notion of aesthetic reaction. There is also an evaluation about the conclusion Telfer has that food can be a minor art. In the end of the article, Glenn explains the idea why he views food as art and the reason why we want to call it art.
This article raises the question about what the main reason is for food to view as a form of art. The author made a lot of comparisons for the idea of Telfer’s article and the idea from Dewey’s point of view. In the article, Glenn stated the three main premises for Telfer’s opinion about food as a minor art is that “it is transient, it is not representative of anything beyond the abilities of the cook, and it cannot “move” someone like other arts can.” (Page 203) Those are the premises for Telfer to derive the idea that food should be consider as a minor art. However, I cannot agree with those basic premises that Telfer made to explain the meaning of food. In my opinion, even though food is transient, it is beautiful and tasty when it exists. We should not view the things differently only based on whether it is transient or not. There are many examples that artworks can be transient, but also be a major art. I think that it is a unique ability to cook to make beautiful and tasty food. The ability which helps cook to make the beautiful food is the same as with the ability which helps the artists to make wonderful paintings. For the third premise, it is not true because people can be inspired by food. A cook can express their emotions and feelings through their dishes, and this can be received by the customers. People can get aesthetic experience from the food they eat. In the course reading, Tefler says that “there can also, of course, be visual aesthetic experiences connected with foodstuffs” (Page 11). This is why food can be considered a major art as it provided the similar aesthetic experiences just like the paintings and sculptures.
Another interesting idea raised in this article is the potential for food to be art. In the article, Glenn mentioned that “Not all food is great art…but all food has the potential to be art because its production, presentation, and manner of appreciation necessarily involve one interactive engagement with the qualitative tensions that underlie experience” (Page 195). This means that we should view food carefully because it has the potential to be called as a form of art. There are lots of examples which show the negative aspect of food, such as fast food. However, we cannot neglect the potential for food to be as art even though there are some bad foods. I think we can view food as a form of art if we look it in a broader point of view, and it may be true that food can be considered as art in general.
In the article, Glenn mentioned another idea that “Food also has a unique characteristic that no other art form has in that it must actually be consumed and destroyed in order to be experienced and enjoyed” (Page 195). This is a thoughtful idea which relates to the explanation for food to be considered as art. I think this should be the reason why food is art, because this unique characteristic can help the cook to express their emotion through this consuming and destroying process. This is unique just like the music that we cannot watch, but we can listen to it. Even though we cannot see the actual object of music, it is viewed as a major art with not doubt. After reading this article, there are more reasons for us to determining whether food is a form of art or not.
Reference:
Light, A., & Smith, J. (Eds.). (2005). Aesthetics of Everyday Life. New York, NY, USA: Columbia University Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com
Tefler, E. (2002). Food as Art. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 2). New York, NY: Routledge.
Reflection:
This is an interesting artifact when I wrote for it, because I was interested in whether we can view food as art or not. This is a question I have for years, and this artifact provides the opportunity for me to get deeper insights of the relationship between food and art. Therefore, I discussed the issue about food as art and also the aesthetic experience of the food we have. I mentioned in my artifact that the aesthetic reaction of art should be something that can inspire people in the ways which designed by the artists. In the course reading, the author Telfer stated that “The taste of food and drink as well as the look of it can give rise to aesthetic reactions” (Page 14). This is the explanation of what food can do for us to perceive the aesthetic experience from works of art.
In the artifact, I also talked about the reason why we should consider food as a form of art. By considering the facts that food is transient, inspiration and has unique characteristic, I made the conclusion that food can be viewed as art in general. However, I also mentioned that not all types of food can be considered as works of art, because there are certain types of food cannot satisfy the basic elements of art. The transient of food cannot prevent the identification of food as art. Food can also be inspiring for people when they get the special feeling from the taste and aesthetic experience from the food they eat. The unique characteristic of food allows it to be consumed and destroyed, and it is also the reason for us to view food as a unique form of art.
Future:
In the future, I will explore the ways for us to identify the art works with what I learned from this artifact experience. Understanding how we evaluate food as art is not enough, and the most important thing is to get the method for us to identify other types of works as art. I will expand the idea about how we view art in this class and get a deeper understanding of human value and art.