Monthly Archives: April 2015

I was able to spend some time at the Nike Employee Store this week, and in doing so I was able to spend a lot of my time watching people do their business in a Nike store. I spent a few hours in the store and so I was able to watch a number of people come and go, but I was able to watch several people spend a similar amount of time in there that I did.

The first person I was keeping an eye on was a lady who was pushing her child around in a stroller. Her child couldn’t have been more than a few months old, so I felt a little bad for her having a young child in such a crowded place. Her attire really reminded me of someone who lives in Eugene. She was wearing a long sun dress, a head band, and a plain t shirt. The key for me was the Chocos. In my opinion, it demonstrated that she has a kind of a free spirited nature. Seeming like she was from Eugene, she looked like someone who is an organics person. I would say that my assumptions say that I believe that some people in Eugene have a distinct style that I can recognize.

The second person I was able to observe for a while was an older man who spent at least two hours looking for a pair of shoes. He was wearing pretty basic clothing, khaki shorts, a collared shirt, and tennis shoes. His hair was well-kept and looked like a clean person. I believe that by dressing the way he does, he’s trying to show that he is comfortably successful, but at the same time he isn’t trying to make a show of it. Nothing that he was wearing was really flashy, but by the way he carried himself, it made me think that he was pretty well off. I think that for my own beliefs, it shows that I take notice of the way someone handles themselves. The man walked around looking confident, just enjoying his time at the store. The combination of his demeanor and dress made me associate him with comfort and success.

The third person I encountered was certainly the most well-dressed and presentable of the three. She was an older woman, probably in her 50’s, wearing a professional suit and pearl necklace and her hair well done. In my opinion she is clearly doing well for herself, and she values looking professional and presenting herself as such. I think that she has a high value in showing her success. I assume she comes from a successful family and her background is in business or financing. I think that my beliefs from the second person are supported by what I took from observing the third woman. She was wearing a business suit so I associated her with success and money.

In this article the author, William Deresiewicz, argues that food is not an art form. He believed that with the new wave of appreciation for food, a new wave of appreciation for art would also arise. He believed that Americans were now discovering their senses and would start to restore an “Old World” style of sophistication. However, what he learned was that food did not generate any new artistic appreciations, but rather it began to replace art all together. Food has now become culture. Food and creativity with food now has its own symbolic meanings. Being good with food has a sense of high society or esteem. Deresiewicz describes the uprising of foodism as, “a vehicle of status aspiration and competition, an ever-present occasion for snobbery, one-upmanship and social aggression.” meaning that people can compete with one another over who is better with food and therefore a higher person in social terms. Deresiewicz describes how young men who flourished into Ivy League schools to join powerful inner circles are now creating enterprises in the food business; they’re creating small restaurants, donut shops, or bakeries. Food has become close to a religion. Deresiewicz describes food as a passion, similar to art, comparing the Sunday painter to the weekend chef. Food has its masters and those who are on television, but what food does not have is any narration or interpretation. Deresiewicz says, “An apple is not a story. . .  Curry is not an idea.” meaning that no matter the process, food cannot give us the same reactions as art can. Art generates sadness, anger, happiness, and while some of these can be brought up because of a sentimental plate of food, these symbols are crude. The responses generated by a work of art are genuine and new, the ones generated by food are tied to things other than the plate itself.

In her own writing, Teller argues in different ways. She explains arguments for both sides of the debate. Teller states that, “an original recipe and an actual dish are works of art if they are regarded aesthetically.” (17). This offers a different approach than the one that Deresiewicz goes on about. In his article, he never mentions the food that is created with a primary purpose of aesthetics. Many desserts or candies are made and used for an aesthetic reason. For example, a wedding cake, while it is eaten, it is made up to be a spectacle to look at while attending a wedding. Teller also mentions that maybe our senses are not as well-trained and therefore cannot appreciate a plate of food as much as possible. Our sense of smell is not as strong as other animals, and maybe this is why food does not play to as many senses to us. Teller uses the example of wine tasters, maybe if all of our sense of smells were as finely tuned as a wine taster’s sense of taste, then we could all begin to appreciate food in more depth.

For the most part however, the two author’s viewpoints are similar. Both find it difficult to find clear reasons to label food as an art form. Teller questions, ” how can there be works of art which are destroyed by the very activity, eating, which is necessary for contemplating them?” (17). Famous works of art have stood the test of time, but food doesn’t last more than a few minutes. Neither author finds that a something that lacks the ability of interpretation can be truly labeled as an art form. Some would argue that the experience that one can have while eating a certain plate of food is something that makes food a form of art. But both authors agree that, while this does create a nostalgic effect that can arise memories that create certain emotions, this is a very limited range emotions, far less than those created by a work of art. Works of art can conjure up thousands of different emotions, raw and true. Both Teller and Deresiewicz also agree that works of art should tell a story or have room for interpretation. Deresiewicz argues that an apple is not capable of telling someone a story. A work of art can lead to a thousand different stories, each one created by someone who looks at it. Each person has their own interpretation of what any given painting can be telling us, while a plate of food lacks that ability.

Deresiewicz, W. (2012, October 26). A Matter of Taste? Retrieved April 26, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/how-food-replaced-art-as-high-culture.html?_r=0

In my opinion, someone can and should be able to find art in just about anything. If someone can splatter paint onto a large canvas and some people view it as beautiful works of art, then I figure people can find art in just about anything. But, each person has their own opinions and see things different, and for me, food is one of those things I have a difficult time calling art. Now, when I say this, I want to mention that there are certain desserts that art extremely artistic, however, I would also argue that those examples are more for looking than actual eating. When I am asked about food, I do not see art so much as I see a delicious meal I cannot wait to get my hands on.

As noted in the reading, we see and view works of art in certain ways, we use our eyes to examine a work of art, but we only understand food through taste and smell. When we view these works of art, we develop our own interpretations of that work. What is the work telling us? How does each aspect of the work contribute to the grander scheme? But we do not do this with food. I would argue that most people do not take a bite of a burger and think to themselves what the chef was trying to tell the consumer. I don’t believe that there is an underlying message in a plate of food. The text also states that, “food does not allow a combination of features, as in a face or a tune” (p. 23) which I believe to be another significant difference in art and food. When we interpret a painting, we analyze the combination of pieces and how that creates a story in it’s own. A plate of food, in my opinion, does not do that.

The film assignment for this week’s unit was a very interesting piece to watch. To see an argument claiming that what we all view as beauty may be closely linked to our common ancestral history is one I have never heard before. When Ted pointed out just how many different things people define as beautiful, people, places, objects, etc., it got my attention and made me realize just how blanketing a term like “beauty” is. Then when he followed up the argument with a detailed account about how earlier evolutionary stages of humanoids created things, not for tools, but for art, my questions began to pop up. The first question that I had come to my mind is, is this a realistic claim at all? I couldn’t imagine how creating a tear-shaped rock just for art could be justifiable, especially when in that time period the primary concern was survival, appreciation of art didn’t climb many priority lists. But then he made the connection between sexuality and how these hand axes could have made males more desirable.

The question I find myself left with after the video is what separates us now from humanoids that existed millions of years ago and how different are we? Is it our ability to critically analyze situations? In terms of art, is it just our ability to create exquisite pieces of art or are we separated by more than that? In today’s world art is not used as a tool; some use art as a means of sending a message to a general population or a way to make a living, but it really isn’t used to separate one male from another for sexual purposes. But at the same time, we still today use art as a means to experience something beautiful. Even as evolved as we are, we still experience art and beauty in some of the same way the humanoids did millions of years ago. While some parts of art become more and more exquisite, some parts of it seem to be unchanged even over millions of years.

Today, my day so far has been primarily about enjoying the nice weather and taking a day to myself doing things I enjoy doing. I played golf in the morning, worked out after that, and now plan on spending the rest of my day relaxing. My activities for the day represent values like health, friendship, and enjoyment. My activities for today match up pretty well for my top 5, which included friendship, and health was also near the top. Some of my values I got from my family were personal development and accomplishment. I was always taught I need to work hard for the things that I want and I continue to implement those values into my life today. I still have a lot of goals that I still haven’t pursued, like finding a career in my field or buying a home in my hometown, these are long term goals that I’m still working towards. I need to finish college and gain some experience in post-college life before I can make serious strides towards these goals.

My list went as follows:

Family. Friendship. Personal Development. Leadership. Personal Accomplishment. Integrity. Loyalty. Wealth. Expertness. Health. Wisdom. Service. Creativity. Power. Prestige. Independence. Security. Community. Enjoyment. Location.

The reading for this week offered a variety of contestable opinions concerning values and how they are developed and utilized. For me personally, the most intriguing topic concerned the idea that values are not something encrypted in every person’s genetic code, but rather values are something that can be chosen and developed throughout the course of a person’s life. Lewis uses a series of examples that strengthen this idea like the fact that many people in Tibet, prior to Chinese invasion, opted to live practicing celibacy in monasteries, challenging the notion that sex and the desire to sustain our own species is an inherited trait that we all share. This example and the others that Lewis uses in his argument show that the values we live with are things that we can choose to live with and things we can change when we feel it is necessary. For me personally, I still don’t have the desire to “sustain my own species”, this is a value that I have chosen to live with up until this point in my life, but that does not mean that my values cannot change somewhere along the line.

Because Lewis uses several different contestable ideas, there is an idea I would challenge. When Lewis uses his Star Wars example, he explains that Obi Wan’s character is pushing Luke’s character to choose emotion over deductive reasoning and would therefore make emotions Luke’s primary force in discerning his own values. (I enjoy Star Wars as much as everyone and thoroughly enjoyed the reference.) But in my own opinion, I view this as a much more, scenario-based value decision more so than a large scale choice. Because Luke’s character ultimately chooses emotions and doing what’s right, that does not mean that all of his values are going to be constructed along the same lines. Some values are made in small decisions and are not as concrete as others. I would contest that examples like this just goes to show that people can possibly change their value system when it means making the right decisions.

I have chosen to post about a blog that not a lot of other people may ever hear or know about, but is something that the last couple of years has been a large part of my life. I have chosen to post about a blog run by a girl known as Bunny Mama. The reason this is relevant to me is because I am the very proud owner of two rabbits that are as great and loyal of pets as any cat or dog.

The blog is significant because rabbits are not as simple of a pet as many people think. As I have learned over the course of the last two years, rabbits are more difficult pet to have because of their very strict diets, safety concerns, and other issues that don’t typically arise with more standard pets. Bunny Mama’s blog is completely devoted to helping people learn about what it means to own a rabbit and the necessary steps everyone should take before owning a rabbit and while owning a rabbit.

For anyone interested in checking out her blog, you can follow the link I have inserted right over there —> click here