The interest in Pinterest

An endless supply of food porn. Quite a few people have mentioned using it to track things they would like to make later. I wonder how many of those have been actualized?

Playing around

Just messing about. No real objective. Just thought I should be playing with my food more.

Marije Vogelzang

Big inspiration to what I would like to do.

Last Meal

I want to know what people will eat for their last meal! Just for curious shits and giggles. I mean, it's the ultimate comfort food/favourite that people will choose right? Who's going to get all health conscious and getting out their nutritional calculators?

Instagrammin' Jammin'

Briefly scrolled through le boyf's ignored Instagram account just to actually see what it was like/about/spark ideas. (yes I am an old turtle)

He is an artist, so most of the people who appeared posted art, but to my surprise (or not) , food was a prettty big topic too.

Here are thought rambles.

Focus on the empty plate. Reading into no wastage, or commentary on how things haven't been left behind eg. bones, sauce smears etc. Food insecurity (uh whole new thing I do not want to step into). Placement of cutlery suggests level of etiquette. Type of serving crockery (?) suggests meal that was.

Meat and manliness. Showing bones, relates back to the fact it was an animal (not with nuggets or fillets, the connection is less apparent). Bones, symbol of death, structure. This thing used to have a larger form than what you consume. 

Food on face being misinterpreted. Semiotics of blah.

Condiments, the secrets to dishes. Focus on the little guys who make things shine. Side foods? The backup dancers.

What would dishes be without sides or mains? Without sides=plain. Without main? A bunch of random things on a plate. Waffles without waffles please. Oh, so just chocolate drizzle and whipped cream & ice cream? Addition and subtraction of foods. Reminds me of Vogelzang's 3 ingredient path food thing.

Alcohol is a big theme. Socialising. Must let others know we are being social. What brand is it? Where are you? Oh.

Not dining alone. Meals & drinks being featured in pairs to reiterate I AM NOT ALONE.

Colour ways of appetising looking food. Browns and yellows.

Food and colour in relation to edible appeal.

Does making it b/w reduce edibility? Yes. Probably because focus is then on form and texture rather than colour associations. 

Sugar sculptures these are not, but that's what they look like to me. Juxtaposition of material and form. Sugar carrot?

Alex Pardee does some scary things out of 'delicious' things. Nice juxtaposition.

What I vomited at people today in crit and a brand new set of eyes.

Target:
Single, inner-city dwellers. Generally better off students/young professionals. Proximity of take outs. Time spent cooking is seen as wasted time/too much effort. Want to replicate home cooked foods for comfort. Perceived as time short yet watch copious amounts of TV and internet.

Nostalgia of home-cooked. Like mom’s comfort food type thing.

Vision:
1> Encouraging people to cook at home with “real” food—a product of nature, not science and industry. Whole foods. Rejection of pre-made throw in oven type things.

2> Encourage people to see food as food, and not as the sum of their nutrients. Reductionist way of thinking of foods. Nutritionism. Dismiss the ideology that we should all be eating by the nutrients—unexamined assumption. We feel we need scientists and marketers to tell us what to eat.

Food is so much more than bodily health. Ignore other things like pleasure, sociality, identity. French paradox? Hinges on dualism. Evil and saviour nutrients. Waging war against ___ whatever is in this decade.

Cooking doesn’t have to be perfect,

Where to?
Create a brand targeted to young professionals? Spice, butter, eggs, farmers market, knives (knives are kinda a one off thing.)

Introduce brand to target through unconventional marketing ways. Engaging through senses, touch, smell, play & emotion (nostalgia)—offline marketing. Reflect upon the qualities of cooking that living vicariously does not do.

Sustained behavioural change through social & private validation. Gamification of progress to feel a sense of achievement.  Placing storytelling in the hands of customers.

Survey results:

People like to be validated by cooking for others, showing off to others, self satisfaction in making.

People that rarely (1-2) cooked at home, enjoyed eating and hated cooking.  Young (18-24).
Rated their skills in the kitchen as very low.
Really, really enjoyed talking about what they ate to others, watched lots of Food TV (often while eating takeaways) and Instagrammed their food.

“Stress about food”. “Hate cooking, don’t cook. I eat out, I get fed.”

All said home-cooked food was superior, negative views on processed food citing health, untasty, uncool, but sometimes the only way. 

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New Eyes

Brooke asked me what I wanted to do. I had no idea. That's the problem.

So what would I like to do? Play with food.

I was talking to some post-grad students today, who were super helpful. Apparently there are talks of Massey self-promotion through an edible art show/banquet thing that will be a performance piece type delio.

They also pointed me in the direction of some spacial kids who play a lot with food. 

To look at this weekend:

• Sam Trubridge (Massey Tutor)
• Frith Armstrong (her final year project was temporal feast)
• Caitlin Le Harivel
• Marije Vogelszang (I love her)

Also, to look into more art culinary performances. 

Concepts I am interested in looking at in relation to food:

• Emotion evoked
• Mood and choice. "I'm feeling __________". Look into Candy Chang.
• Nostalgia/associations with foods.
• Living vicariously. Replacement of eating good food with just sight. Replacement of conversation with text. We are short changing experiences.
• Conversation over coffee. Most common words/topics spoken about?
• Language and food. Combining words on food to alter perception—psychology.
• Colour and food appeal. Sight and food relation. B/W food photography?
• Collaborative cooking? Having a person start a dish, some other throw something in, and finish. Like making a soup and every one brings something to add to the pot type dealio.

I think what I'd want is people to be aware that food is much more than sustenance and bodily health (which it appears the media has reduced it to). I want to bring back the priority of simple pleasure in experiencing foods. Reconnecting and being thankful, and stop mindlessly consuming.

I personally really enjoy the taste of plain courgettes and bok choy. The ability to focus on the tastes of each thing appears to be a rarity.

I'm infinitely interested in emotions, memory, and sensory perception.

More note to self blah blahs:

• Between us—looking into the connection of cutlery, food type and people. Brooke mentioned about people eating sushi with a fork, and the taboos. We got given cutlery for our bowl of chips at Prefab Cafe today. When do we use fingers and forks? Why does it matter? Etiquette.
• Watch what you eat—develop a consciousness to eating, not for bodily health per se (overheard man talking about how he had to change due to heart attack and woman was talking about weight) but for the fact we have food, and the food is good, and is to be enjoyed and not endured. Negative perceptions towards veges?
• Finding an onion wrapped in Easter Egg wrapper in the Botanical Gardens. Expectation and slight disappointment. Perception of wrapping and contents? Perhaps link back to processed food? Deconstruct packaged food.
• A quick count at Prefab @ 2:30pm, Friday—most people came in twos or threes. Very rarely was the group more than 4.
• Nutritional calculator? We are overthinking it.

Yup. Sleep.

Just Cook

Just Cook.

http://www.nutritionfoundation.org.nz/news-and-hot-topics/latest-news/Food-week-launched

NZ initiative by the Nutrition Foundation.

“The biggest barriers to meal preparation are time, money and knowledge. Our Food Week aims to break down these barriers and show Kiwis how to make affordable meals the whole family will enjoy. Kiwiscan afford to eat properly at home if they know how.”

Hanrahan believes the conflicting and often negative messages in the media on what we should and shouldn’t be eating, alongside the regular reporting on the cost of what’s in our trolley is misleading New Zealanders to believe that cooking a healthy meal at home is unaffordable.

Nutritionalism as an ideology.
“When you keep hearing that you have to use a minimum number of veges, cook without fat, reduce salt, increase fibre, reduce sugar and fit wholegrains into every meal, cooking a healthy and tasty meal at home just seems like mission impossible. We’re also reminded on a daily basis how expensive it is to feed a family. Just Cook encourages cooking at home using basic household ingredients. The recipes are quick to make and the results are delicious – now that’s the message we need to embrace.”

Their sponsors.

Kind of what I want to do SMP wise. Website is terrible to use.

Select ingredients and find meal suggestions.

Child and parent based ratings. Unsure how old 'child' entails.