Artifact #3: Food As Art
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 artform.
- Consider cultural differences in the production and consumption food
Original Post:
I absolutely believe that art can be a form of food. However, it needs to be brought about in the right circumstance. In last week’s post I discussed how my father sculpted a flag all out of wood in tribute to 9/11. He was able to express himself and his patriotism through this piece that he created. Well I believe that the same goes for my mom as well. As far back as I can remember my mom has been making the absolute best, made from scratch dinner dishes that her mom (my grandmother) taught her to make when she was a little girl. These dishes show my mom’s heritage, her background, and her sense of culture just as my dad was able to do with his carving.
This is why I believe that slow, thoughtfully prepared food is an art form. This is due to the fact that an “aesthetic reaction” is brought about for both parties involved. An aesthetic reaction is referred to by J.O. Urmson as a kind of pleasure brought about to one of our 5 senses and I can honestly say that whenever I eat my mom’s food each one of these senses is overflowing with awesomeness. However, I feel that it’s not these 5 senses that bring about an “aesthetic reaction” for her when she cooks for us. There is another untold sense that brings her joy. One of the quotes by Tefler, I feel explains this extremely well when he says, “some of the most powerful aesthetic reactions involve being impressed by some unexpected or short lived phenomenon – perhaps something too quick to pay attention to” (10). Well I believe that this short lived phenomenon is the satisfaction that my mom gets for providing food for her children. Every time I ask her if she wants me to make dinner she turns me down and says absolutely not (and by no means do I argue). But this has always intrigued me. So I eventually asked her. I said, “mom why do you enjoy cooking so much”? And her answer really surprised me. She said I don’t really know how to explain it but whenever I cook and provide a meal for everyone I get a feeling of satisfaction and overwhelming accomplishment; like that of completing a project. This is my mom’s “aesthetic reaction”. She doesn’t necessarily get it from the smell and taste of her dishes that she makes (although I can’t see how not) but rather her aesthetic feeling comes from seeing my father, my brother and I clean up the beautiful meal that she prepared for us all.
Overall I believe that I take more of a post-modernist view when it comes to food rather than a modernist. I don’t put myself up in the elite category when I try and make a home cooked meal for my roommates and I don’t believe my mom does either. I agree that some food, especially at expensive restaurants, can be viewed as art due to the degree of the food and elegance of the preparation that the food was prepared with. However, this doesn’t mean that my mom’s food would stack up any differently. Dissanayake stated that art took into account human history, human cultures, and human psychology. On one hand you have the expensive restaurant that could be viewed in the mindset of human psychology, i.e. it looks great and I’m paying a lot for it so it must be art. Then on the other hand you have my mom whose cooking could be viewed as more part of a human culture because her cooking comes from her mother and her grandmother’s heritage. Both I would argue are pieces of art just in two separate categories.
Reflection:
This tiny little picture above is a prime example of a dish that my mom cooks on a daily basis for my dad, brother and I. The perfect blend of taste and healthiness with a little home-cooked flare. Now the underlying question still remains, could this be classified as as a piece of art? The answer to this question, at least in my mind is absolutely. I’ve seen the amount of effort that my mom puts into each dish and they truly are masterpieces. Now some people could look at these and say well it doesn’t look like a masterpiece. It’s presentation isn’t as high of quality as it should be to be considered art. This was the argument that I struggled with the most. The idea of the process of art versus product and crafting of the art versus fine art really got to me and I couldn’t figure it out. After digging through the previous weeks reading a found a quote that finally allowed everything to click for me. Dissanayake states in her article What is Art For? that, “the idea of art takes into account all of human history, all human societies, and accounts for the fact that art is a psychological or emotional need and has psychological or emotional effects”(Dissanayake, 15). My mother feels a need and a calling to provide for her family and the primary way she knows how is through her cooking. Her background and heritage show through each one of the dishes she provides which connects to Dissanayake’s point of art accounting for human societies. All of the facts are there show that this type of food and cooking is indeed an art form. However, I would say that my moms cooking closely relates more to a craft rather than a fine art.
It is obvious that there are differences in what my mom makes in comparison to what high end restaurants make. On one hand you have my mom who meticulously prepares each dish through the set steps that have been laid out to her by my grandmother. And on the other hand you have a high end chef whose primary goal is to have it be visually appealing and bring about an “aesthetic reaction” to the customer. An aesthetic reaction, as referred to by philosophers, is the internal feeling that we receive when we view a piece of art. However, some believe that this cannot be accomplished through food therefore meaning that food can’t be art. Elizabeth Tefler gives some great insight in her article Food As Art when she explains that, regardless of the type of art, aesthetic reactions are brought about when one or more of our 5 senses gets aroused. This could be through taste, sight etc. Isn’t that the point of all food? To look and taste good. This is where my argument comes in. If you wanted to compare side by side a dish by my mom and a dish by a chef obviously the visual aesthetic reaction is going to come from the chef’s piece as my moms goal isn’t always to make it look visually appealing. But when it comes to taste my mom’s piece would bring about the same aesthetic reaction as the chef as she has over 40 years worth of time to perfect the quality of each one of her dishes. This is why food should to be considered art. The processes and consumption objectives may be different from cook to cook but the overall goal is still the same. To bring about an aesthetic reaction for the customer. Even if its something as subtle as a fast food burger. If you were to ask a majority of this university’s students about McDonalds I’m sure you would get a common answer among most of them, and that is the taste. As students we don’t have a lot of money or time to go out and pay top dollar for food or spend 2 hours cooking a homemade dish. So we settle for alternatives. Fast food being one of them. Think about it, if you haven’t eaten all day and you only have enough money for a mcdonalds burger isn’t that burger going to bring about a fulfilling aesthetic reaction when you bite into it? One of satisfaction and comfort? This is still technically an aesthetic reaction even though the food wasn’t made with the quality of other high end foods.
Overall, I believe that all food brings about an aesthetic reaction in some way shape or form. Therefore meaning that food is indeed an art in all phases of the word.
Future Goals:
This topic gave me a lot of insight in the classification of the term “art”. It had not even dawned on me that a piece of food could be considered art. But when I considered the processes that it took to make the food and the aesthetic reactions that it brought upon sight and taste then there was no doubt in my mind that food is art. In the future I hope to dive deeper into the what artists and chefs feel when they prepare a masterful piece of work for their customers. What kinds of feelings does it give them seeing the reactions on peoples faces. I feel like it would be a really interesting discussion and I believe that we could gain some good insight on what artists strive for when preparing a piece of art.
Table of Contents
Artifact #1: Lindsey Vonn Out for the Olympics
Artifact#2: Life Values Assessment
Artifact#3: Food As Art
Artifact#4: Personal Adornment Discussion
Artifact #5: The Aesthetics of Horror
Artifact #6: Creative Spirituality Discussion
Artifact #7: Art, Games, and Technology Discussion
Artifact #8: Remixing Google Image Search