The first person I saw was a tale male with olive colored skin. He was pretty tall in my opinion probably around the same height as me. He has medium length hair, was wearing an Oregon sweatshirt, and jeans, with Nike running shoes. He had a pretty average backpack on and was walking at a brisk pace by himself. He was not really looking at anything specific, but just kind of looking off aimlessly towards the direction he was going. I believe this individual was somewhat health oriented, because he looked to be in pretty good shape, and also was walking with very long strides with good posture. I am making these assumptions off of the fact that he was wearing running shoes, and the way that he was walking. I feel like these things are true, because of the fact that I am also a health conscious person, and he acted someone how I feel like I do while walking between classes. The last thing about him that I noticed was that he was cleanly shaved, which I interpret as someone who takes care of their bodily appearance, and isn’t lazy. I try and be like this also, but much of the time I fail at it.

The next person I decided to look at was another male this time a little bit shorter, maybe around 5’10”, with a slightly protruding belly. He was wearing a blue zip up jacket with a white shirt, jeans, and gray shoes. He had dirty blond hair, and had a slight beard, and mustache in the same color. The last part of him that is why I decided to pick him was because he was walking a dog, and this dog only had 1 eye. By the way the person dressed I felt like he was an out of shape person who seemed overworked and very tired. The facial hair looked well groomed so I didn’t feel like that was a negative part about him. The fact that he had a dog with one eye made be feel like he was a person who was very loving and caring in everything he did, and because of all this hard work and love he gave out he was so tired looking. The fact that the dog had one made the feeling ever stronger because he probably had to give extra training and special attention to the dog, even if it had just been a friends, either way it was a good deed. The way this person looked and seemed like he acted made me think he was a very genuine person with a lot to give.

The last person I saw was a woman, who in my mind was pretty short, but thats just kind of normal height for a girl. She had dyed black hair, and was wearing a jacket, jeans, and converse. She had a black backpack with some studs on it, and darker looking make-up, but had very big open eyes. Her face seemed very happy and almost like in a constant smile. The last big thing I noticed about her was the fact that she had what looked like one of the henna tattoos on her hand. At first look she seemed kind of like a stereotypical emo kid. But after further inspection she seemed very happy and full of life. She walked at an average pace, and kept her arms crossed her chest. When I see that I feel like she must be a little shy or quiet, because that is what I find typical with that posture. Her eyes were wide open and bright, and looked to me to be very inviting. At first look she seemed kind of like an odd person who I wouldn’t want to talk to, but after looking at her and judging her a little longer, she seemed like just any normal person, and just had a couple styles that weren’t exactly my type. This makes me kind of feel like I shouldn’t judge people on how they look so fast, and look to the things I connect with instead of the things that I am deterred from.

For my research I read the article, Is Food Art? Chefs, Creativity, and the Restaurant Business? This article is about how food is art, and focuses on both movies and restaurants, and how they portray food. By this I mean they try and show how the food has a certain craftsmanship to it. The chef manipulates the food to become the delicious dishes they make, with food being the medium. Chefs just like artists have to find people who enjoy what they are providing, and have to be able to continually change their art to add some variety. When you do become a gifted chef you have a niche talent that people will come to see, and being the frontrunner in any kind of situation is always a difficult process.

In the article the author talks about the documentaries that he believes contributes to art being in food. From these documentaries he explains what it is that pushes them and makes them more than just a cook, but an artist as well, “Chefs are not just craftsmen, artisans, or business persons; they are expected to offer patrons (and critics) dishes and menus that stimulate and surprise them, find new methods to manipulate ingredients, and interact with technology and design in ways that keep them on the cutting edge and ensure coverage from the press, TV, and the Internet.(Parasecoli, 1). Parasecoli talks about how chefs are these innovators who are on the cusp, and continually have to manipulate ingredients, as well as deal with technology to produce. In the article that we read for class I found a section that I feel like the author used that in conjunction with other readings and things I have seen contradict her theories. She says, “Not all objects that can give rise to aesthetic reactions are works of art. A work of art is definition a man-made thing, even if the human involvement need consist of no more than putting a natural object in a gallery and giving it a title”(Telfer,12). When Telfer says this then to me food must be a form of art. If art must be man made, then food has that complete, as well as the fact that any dish will have a title, and it is on display for any person who wants to visit the restaurant.

The manipulation of food is such an amazing process with so much skill and technique involved, that people who think it can’t be art must be missing something. Just like painting, anyone can be a chef and cook a meal, but not everyone can turn it into art, to do that requires time dedication and skill, which just like any other type of art takes time. People come from all around the world to see and try different foods because they themselves can not create it, and wish to experience it firsthand. Looking at a masterpiece online is never the same as looking at a picture, just like looking at food is not the same as eating it.

In addition to reading this article I found a video that I thought demonstrated food as art very well. It is from a T.V. show called, Diners Drive-ins and Dives. There was a specific episode where the cook was so good at what he was doing with the foot that he physically also made the food into art. CLIP In this video the man using pancake batter to both cook a pancake and make it incredibly detailed to the face of the host of the show. This was stunning, that not only was he creating delicious food, but continuing his artistic ingenuity to make his food be even more appealing to people. With this video I feel like it shows that food can really be art, and there are instances where it may not be art, but there are other times when cooks and chef’s really are creating great works of art with their food.

Through all of this reading, I have seen many different perspectives and ideas about food being art. Seeing my peer’s ideas about it had some of the biggest impact on my thinking because I was able to see what kind of thoughts and ideas other people without extensive knowledge on the subject thought, and were bringing up. While reading the article I found online I was able to dive deeper into how food and art are really connected, and was able to put together my ideas about why food should really be known as art.

Parasecoli, Fabio. “Is Food Art? Chefs, Creativity, and the Restaurant Business?”The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 2 Feb. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fabio-parasecoli/food-art_b_3830791.html>.

“The Guy Pancake Video : Food Network.”The Guy Pancake Video : Food Network. Web. 2 Feb. 2015. <http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/the-guy-pancake-0122530.html>.

The fact that so many things can be classified as art, but some still think that food is not art is somewhat ridiculous to me. Just like anything that is considered art, it is all dependent on the eyes of the beholder. While watching to video about fast food, and how it is so manipulated to create an almost fake image to draw in the customer, it makes me think of how some physical pieces of art can also be changed to draw in the viewer, but after closer examination and discovery someone can tell its really not good. This can also be similar to looking at an imitators artwork, and noticing subtle differences in brushstroke, and tones. Contrary to this when watching the video about slow food, and how delicately it is crafted and put together to make contrasts and tastes for the customer, it reminds me greatly of the hard work and time it takes to create a dish so wonderful. Telfer writes, “Our reaction is aesthetic, in many simple cases, if it is based solely on how the object appears to the senses”(Telfer, 9). Telfer is reminding us how we determine if something would be considered art to a person, and it is completely based on how the piece appears and effects the senses of the patron.

When we see this we can tell that art can really be anything, which is why I so pasionatly believe that food can be an art. Art has constantly been changing to include more diverse topics from music, dance, poetry, and physical artworks, and because of this I think the creation and appeal that food brings to us should place it also in the category of art. In the world of cooking plating is a major factor in weather your dish is good or amazing, being able to have that eye and know just how to plate something or create food that is also appealing to the eye is very artistic to me. In Telfers writing she also talked about foods that were created not to be eaten, but just for aesthetic appeal,”It could be argued that these objects are not food, since they were not intended to be eaten, but food properly so called is likewise often arranged or decorated in creative and attractive ways which constitute a visual work of art”(pg 13-14). In this sense there was food created to become a work of art with food as the medium for the artwork. In the world we are living it today nothing can stay the same for to long, technology and change are bitting at our feet, and if people are not up to speed to change with it they will be left behind. If people are unable to change their views on something as simple as considering something art, then I find it difficult for them to be keeping up with art in general, and being able to see the real beauty in all forms of artwork.

1.) The term paleoanthropsychobiological is a way to view humans history through psychological and biological manners. This term was coined by Ellen Dissanayake.

2.) When Dissanayake says, “making special” she was referring to the way humans developed mentally, and physically by being able to recognize things that were also special. This relates to the fact that humans were able to notice and make changes to help them live because of the fact that they were special and could tell that they were.

3.) The greek era was mentioned, and during this time the term art was not used. “Plato did not discuss ‘art’, but rather beauty, poetry, and imagemaking” (pg 16). During this time they were discussing this kinds of ideas and why they were important, but not so much categorized them and given them the title of art.

Modernism was another one talked about, and was during the 18th century. Modernism focused on aesthetics as well as a central beauty that was found in all of the arts. “… works of art could be viewed universal”(pg 4). During this time people were starting to notice all types of arts, but this was only done by those who had the time to do so.

Lastly I will bring up post-modernism. Dissanayake saw this period of art and interpretation meaning that she and other could all be seeing the art in different ways. This type of art was around in the 20th century, and really caused people to think about what art was and is becoming. This art would, “calls into question two centuries of assumptions about the elite and special nature of art” (pg 19). This would start to change the way that we look at art, and start to bring in new ideals about what art really is.

Through the reading by Dissanayake, and the TED talk about a Darwinian theory about beauty, I have come to some realizations about what art really is and why it makes something appealing to us, or more commonly called beautiful. I enjoyed the ideas that the TED talk provided about why we think something is beautiful, and how things are beautiful to us when they remind us of the past that humans went through. So when we see a nice Savannah like landscape with tree’s, vegetation, life, and animals it is noticed in our evolved DNA that we used to look for these kinds of places and we today have strong feelings towards them. The fact that he states, “beauty comes from evolution”(Dutton) both intrigues me and scares me at the same time. It shows me that we value things from the past, and there is a rational reason why we are attracted to certain things. The part of this that scares me is that in the grand scheme of time humans are still so young, and if in this amount of time we perceive beauty as things we needed for like two and a half million years ago, couldn’t in the future things we perceive as beauty change to something as meaningless as some worthless piece of technology. If evolution dictated our beauty for now what will our conception of beauty turn to and become in the future when people will have completely different associations with living.

The fact that we have been creating art for so long during the existence of humans is also a very fascinating aspect of art. If our ancestors used to create art about things they desired, then the futures art should reflect this aspect as well. In Dissanayake’s writing it says, “art must be viewed as an inherent universal trait of the human species, as normal and natural as language, sex, sociability, aggression, or any of the other characteristics of human nature”(1). If this is true will the image of beauty change over time? I personally agree with the fact that we see beauty in any kind of skilled performance whether it be art or something else, and because of this there will be a certain talent based art and beauty, but at the same time what is considered beauty in the future could become completely different that what we know today.

Today I did not do a lot of activities, mostly because it was a Sunday and even less of them had to do with my values, but some of them matched up with my values. I did a few things that had to deal with wisdom, friendship, health, and some personal accomplishment. Just in general everyday I am very careful about what I eat, making sure that it is healthy and good for my body. I am very health conscious in general and it is seen in my day to day life. Friendship was seen when I went to breakfast with a bunch of people this morning as well as hanging with them all day and through to the night. Each day I try and fit some personal accomplishment in, even if it is something small I try and make a goal even as simple as finishing an assignment or folding my laundry. Lastly in wisdom I am constantly trying to learn and better myself, similar to health. I do this very often by watching videos on youtube, that can vary from fitness videos, to Ted Talks to just try and absorb some sort of new knowledge.

I believe I inherited a lot of patterns from my family, as a part of personal improvement. My family are all very driven people with high aspirations, and seeing just how successful the rest of my family is makes me more driven because I want to be just as great as them. Currently some of my values that I am not really working towards or acknowledging is Prestige and Power, they are things I want in the future but not things that I need to be currently working on. Some goals I have for myself, is to try and be the best I can be and always putting be best effort in anything that I try, even if it is something I don’t like to much at first. I feel bad about things that I quit on and look back at them and regret my missed opportunities, so from now on I try and reach my full potential. Currently the unknown is what is standing in the way of my goals. I do not know exactly what I want to do with my life, but I have high hopes and aspirations. I need to try and think more short term, and specific goals for what I want, instead of trying to think a big picture of what I am trying to do.

While doing this reading many thoughts went through my head about my own values, and how I come to “know” something. This was one of the parts that I found most interesting, because it is what really defines a person and can have a huge impact on how a person acts and how a person develops their values will have a huge effect on what kind of person they will become. While looking at the four basic and two synthetic values I looked back at them to see which ones are most instilled in me when it comes to knowing something. The values that I feel I most align with are sense experience and deductive logic, as well as the synthetic value of science. I feel like these all go well together, and describe how I look at things. I am very detail and fact oriented, and have a hard time just going with my gut, or how I am feeling. When something if proven in front of me I am most likely to be able to believe it, and can then work on comprehending however ridiculous it might be. I think this might be part of the reason I am so fascinated with magic tricks, because I am missing the way the trick works, and it astounds me and I can barely believe the trick has happened.

The portion of this article that was most interesting to me was the part asking if values are chosen, ” But do values, in the sense of freely chosen values, truly exist?” (Lewis, 7). This topic looks back at both scientific data, and personal experiences, which makes it exceptionally confusing topic. The article talks about that fact that we are born with the genetic coding to do two very specific things, live and to reproduce. These two traits have been seen through all of humanity as some of the most apparent traits, but there have been times that humans have had the exact opposite behaviors. It talks about Japanese ritual suicide, as well as Tibet’s celibacy. These two instances show that values can be changed against human nature, and that values may not be the driving forces in human beings. This was my favorite part of the article, because it showed me that in a sense you can do anything, and go against the thousands of years of evolutionary values and do whatever you want. These deep rooted instincts can be ignored if someone has values that allow someone to look past our most primal urges, and in a way that is somewhat scary. At what point do our values become strongly enough ingrained that they are our driving factor on how we live?

The Science of the Best Fresh Pasta

Reading this post was surprising to me, because I never really knew how to make home made pasta. I was very delighted when I found out how it easy it is, and it gives me some new motivation to make my own pasta at home instead of buying boxes of pasta. It will take some extra time if I decide to make my own pasta at home, so the convenience is not as good, but it could be some fun while trying to create a new recipe, and will be a nice stress reliever allowing me to spend some fun time in the kitchen. Cooking has always been something that I have loved to do, and is great way that helps me to release stress. Finding time to cook in college is a difficult task, and something as time consuming as making my own pasta dough may not be something I will be able to practice much during school, but is going to be a great thing to know how to do for the future. I thought that there was more to making pasta than just eggs, and flour but now I know I really only need two ingredients to make my own pasta.