Affordances

The affordances of the environment are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill (Harris, 2009). In other words, affordances can be considered to be what you get out of doing a certain activity. Aesthetics plays a large part when discussing cooking. Aesthetics is defined by the Oxford Dictionary (1999) to be artistically beautiful, or of pleasing appearance. Cooking can be pleasing for all of five senses, some more than others, obviously.
Lets begin with smell. Smell can be a huge factor when eating, especially if you are trying something new. If the food presented to you doesn't smell good, then you will probably be a bit apprehensive about eating it. On the other hand, if you smell good food, you can be immediately excited about what you are about to eat. Some foods have very comforting smells, such as freshly baked bread or fresh cakes or cookies. If I walk into my house and smell home-made bread being made before I even see it, I instantly feel happy and excited to eat it. Same goes with baking, I love walking into a home which has just taken some cookies out of the oven, the sweet scent can fill an entire room, making it feel cosy and comfortable.
Moving on to sight. Similarly to smell, sight can have a big impact on how you feel about what you are eating. Some foods just look absolutely delicious, just a wee glimpse can make the mouth water and the stomach grumble. However, some foods don't rank quite as highly in appearance. Foods we may not be used to, such as foreign food, may look a little daunting to us. I remember being in an Asian restaurant with some friends, the majority of whom were Chinese, with a large variety of traditional Chinese foods placed in front of me. They found it rather entertaining watching me try to figure out what these foods were, and could tell I was a little (if not, alot) wary of trying the different sorts of foods. After trying a few dishes, I discovered they actually were delicious and tried to look past the strange appearance of them.
Feel, or texture in the context of cooking, may not be a big thing for some people, but it is huge for me. There are some things that I just cannot, and will not, eat due to the texture. It is mainly meat that I am fussy about here. I don't like meat that is too chewy, therefore I need to chop any scrap of fat, or rind, off my meat before I eat it (which then occasionally gets passed down to my food-loving dog, who is always grateful for a wee feast). I remember eating jellyfish when I was visiting Japan which I had  not previously tried before. I remember it tasting quite nice, but the unusual texture, which was slightly crunchy as well as slimy, meant that I could not bring myself to eat more, despite it having a pleasant taste.
Hearing is not such a huge aspect when it comes to cooking, however it still has it's place. Hearing food sizzling in a pan, or boiling in a pot can make you start thinking about the final product that you will have when the food is cooked. Hearing does however, seem to be a huge aspect of food when I think of my animals. They can be sound asleep in the next room, not a care in the world, but as soon as they hear someone rustling wrappers, or opening the fridge / pantry in the kitchen, they are immediately at your feet, hoping to get just the smallest crumb or treat they can find.
The final sense, and the one I consider most important with food, is taste. If the food doesn't taste good, then no matter how good it smells or looks, you are probably not going to eat it. It amazes me how much taste differs from person to person. I may eat something that I find absolutely amazing but then my friend sitting next to me feels nauseous just looking at it. In the movie Julie and Julia (2009), Julie Powell feels very strongly about the taste of butter. "Is there anything better than butter? Think it over, any time you taste something that's delicious beyond imagining and you say 'what's in this?' the answer is always going to be butter. The day there is a meteorite rushing toward Earth and we have thirty days to live, I am going to spend it eating butter. Here is my final word on the subject, you can never have too much butter."

Ephron, N. (2009). Julie and Julia. USA: Columbia Pictures.
Harris, D. (2009). Engineering psychology and cognitive ergonomics. New York: Springer.
Pearsall, J. (1999). Concise oxford dictionary. Tenth edition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Links to other Blogs:

As a note to the lecturer, you will find links to all blogs I post on here :)

http://participationcharlotte.blogspot.com/2011/09/affordances.html?showComment=1318804100829#c2197979233433888826

http://shilmonipo1.blogspot.com/2011/10/affordances-spiritualiity-aesthetics.html?showComment=1318803918092#c5648227269680200070

http://mattgeeetar.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-four-another-jam-session.html?showComment=1318804298951#c4904910003192436993

http://janinesparticipationinoccupationblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/comments-on-other-blogs.html?showComment=1318803777544#c5280992329699579628

Ergonomics

Ergonomics is defined as "the science of work and a persons relationship to that work" (About.com, 2011). Today in class we looked at activities in relation to how they fit into a Person, Activity, and Environment grid. We had a class discussion and came up with the following ideas.
Person
-Age -> life timeline, temporal perspective
-Energy required to participate in the activity
-Aptitude, skills, sense of competence
-Sense of responsibility -> perception
-Preferences
-Time available to participate
-Deficits
-Financial capacities

Activity
-Adaptations of the activity that may need to be made
-Pacing / Rhythm
-Temporal / Time of day
-Robustness of materials
-Other kinds of equipment that may be required
-Costs invovled

Environment
-Equipment available
-Spatial organisation
-Cultural aspects -> how we do things
-How rich our environment is
-Seasons

With these ideas in mind, I then focussed in on my own activity of cooking. This helped me to analyse more deeply what cooking means to me as an activity, and all of the elements that go into it.
Person
-I have been helping Mum in the kitchen for as long as I can remember. We used to have 'Wednesday baking days' when we were younger which was always a treat (being allowed to lick the cream beaters was always a highlight). Christmas day was always fun as my sister and I would be helping Mum and Grandma prepare the desserts and vegetables for the big feast. I think I would have started cooking family dinners around the age of about 10 or 11, with assistance from either Mum and Dad or my older sister. Although I was probably shocking at this age, helping out always made me feel like a grown up, and it felt good to be able to help my family after a busy day.
-I do feel I have limited time for cooking / baking in the mean time with study and work keeping me busy, however I do enjoy taking some time out of study to whip up a treat when I have the energy and motivation.
-There is not much of a cost involved for me personally associated with cooking as I still live at home so groceries are provided from Mum and Dad. However, when I was flatting last year, I found cost a big issue as I could only afford the basics which resulted in boring, repetitive meals.

Activity
-I feel I require a base recipe when I'm cooking as I'm not quite creative enough to start from scratch. However, I do really enjoy taking a recipe and swapping up the ingredients to see how it changes the taste.
-Some meals require expensive or odd ingredients that I wouldn't find use for otherwise so I tend to steer clear of those. Although I may make some exeptions if the item looks particularly great.
-There is alot of equipment involved in cooking/baking and it can be rather frustrating when you don't have adequate dishes/pans/utensils etc. I found this very difficult when I was in the flat last year as we had a very limited kitchen which was very impractical. The equipment was also not very good quality which made things difficult as well. At home, things are much easier. We have a well set up kitchen so I am generally able to find everything I may need.

Environment
-As stated above, our kitchen is well set up so it is a nice tidy environment to be in when cooking, compared to the flat which was unorganized and messy.
-There is a large varitey in fruits and vegetables from season to season which can make cooking interesting. This can be really great if the ingredients you are wanting to use are in season, however rather frustrating if they are not. There are generally tinned varieties of things you can use as a replacement, however I feel that fresh is best.
-There is a cultural aspect with cooking in my family when it comes to special occasions, be it birthdays, anniversarys or any other special dates. We tend to have the good old family recipes that pop up at all of these times, that are garaunteed to be a hit and noone will ever get sick of. I believe these will be the types of things I am still making for my family years down the track.

This activity has had me think about differents aspects of cooking and has made me realise how important food can be other than just for survival. It has brought back great memories from my childhood and made me think about how the past has shaped how I cook, and why i love cooking now.

References:
About.com (2011). Ergonomics. Retrieved September 13, 2011, from http://www.about.com/ergonomics

Semester Two, Tutorial One

Today in class we were asked to think of an activity we do for at least two hours a week and and reflect on what it means to us. I decided to choose cooking as my activity as I really enjoy being in the kitchen. I cook dinner 3-4 nights per week for my family. I enjoy trying something new each time I cook, and using a variety of different recipes. I also really enjoy baking. I bake for my family (grandparents especially love this), and also for friends or for special occasions. As with cooking meals, I enjoy trying new recipes for baking aswell. I like to be creative when baking with decorating, presentation etc.
So what does cooking / baking mean to me?
I enjoy being in the kitchen as it gives me some downtime after a busy day. I can unwind and experiment with lots of different recipes etc. It gives me a sense of achievment whenever I create something that everyone enjoys, and this encourages me to continue to try new things. It is also a form of income for me, as I work 4-5 nights per week, working in a fast paced food environment.