Author: Zoe Brook

Week 8 Seminar Post: Technology, Art, and Music Influences

ComAlt, Sarah Williams

Seminar Reading Response Paper, wk 8.

Zoe Wright

Tompkins section of chapter 5, bell hooks “eating the other”

“Just as transportation technology revolutionized what was eaten where, and what markets farmers, dairymen, or fishermen were producing for, the revolution in media was integral to the consumer phantasmagoria of the Gilded Age – the beginning of the unending barrage of visual stimuli that we now take for granted.” (Tompkins, 147)

“Cultural appropriation of the Other assuages feelings of deprivation and lack that assault the psyches of radical white youth who choose to be disloyal to western civilization. Concurrently, marginalized groups, deemed Other, who have been ignored, rendered invisible, can be seduced by the emphasis on Otherness, by its commodification, because it offers the promise of recognition and reconciliation. When the dominant culture demands that the Other be offered as sign that pro-gressive political change is taking place, that the American Dream can indeed be inclusive of difference, it invites a resurgence of essentialist cultural nationalism. The acknowledged Other must assume recognizable forms.” (hooks, 370)

“Gilbert & Sullivan addressed gender stereotyping in their operas, with characters such as Katisha of ‘The Mikado’ and the fairy queen from ‘Iolanthe’, blurring the lines between masculine and feminine gender conventions of the time. Lines and quotes from Gilbert & Sullivan operas have made their way into everyday usage. Phrases such as ‘short, sharp shock’ and ‘let the punishment fit the crime’ are used today, along with ‘Pooh-bah’, a phrase used to describe someone who is self-important or high-ranking, who either exhibits inflated self-importance or has a position and title, but with no real authority.” (2016)

I chose the line from Tompkins because it struck a chord in some of my previous interests and the early education I got from my family. I have had a lot of conversations about how technology, both transportation and media have influenced history and social interactions, and that really struck a chord with me. The phrases a short bit later ‘advertising poem’ and ‘consumer testimonial’ reminded me of the way my father used to describe television advertisements – thirty, sixty seconds long – as a form of high art, because it took such a short time to change a person’s mind, and to create an action in another person that that person wouldn’t have taken if they had not seen the advertisement. I also chose this line because recently I watched a video on what isolation and lack of stimulation does to the brain, and how the lack of stimulation, and interaction can for extended periods of time do so much as to cause brain damage, there was even a brief discussion of how solitary confinement affects inmates. The phrase about the unending visual stimuli reminded me of that video, and that stimuli of some kind is necessary to our lives.

I chose the lines from hooks because it felt like a very concise summation in a way of what had been discussed before about young men considering contact, in this case ‘fucking’, with the Other as a kind of experience gain, a rite of passage. That it was not to them a form of racism to expect that an other had more life experience, that it was an act to gain experience, to allow another to act upon them and change them. (hooks, 368) I found these passages interesting because it’s a really intricate and dynamic conversation to have, where the lines of racism and interaction intersect and why and how. It brings up discussions of tokenism, exoticism, the demand for ‘authenticity’, and many other discussions of racism and representation in media and cultural thought. Its exhausting to pick apart these discussions, especially in such a small space, but the act of noting it down as important or catching in a way saves it for me to come back to later, to allow it to be in the back of my mind until something else comes up and makes a connection that creates a kind of unified sense.

I chose the lines from the article because Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado was briefly mentioned in the tompkins chapter and I wanted to see if I could find a comment on the way Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta’s played with various social and political dynamics in really interesting and intricate ways. Because of course there is very problematic language in G&S operettas, but there are also elements that are critiquing social structures that still exist in some form, and I find that really very cool and interesting to think about. Again, the thought is not necessarily complete or thoroughly processed for lack of time, but it is there waiting for further connections, as are many spare learned things in my mind.

Referenced article:

How did Gilbert & Sullivan influence modern culture? (2016, May 31). Retrieved from http://grimsdyke.com/cultural-influences-gilbert-sullivan/

Week Six Reflection: Allegiance.

A note on my internship. I have collected a narrowed selection of articles in varying lengths that I am reading and taking detailed notes on. From these notes I will write up my literature review, bibliography, and other notes and thoughts. I’m not sure exactly what this format will look like, but I am confident that it will meet the structures and requirements I set for myself at the beginning of the quarter.

Because this project is so very research based, there’s not always a lot to report at one time, because the time I’m spending is done researching in small chunks, or reading in large chunks. Progress reports are short and sweet. The time when I will really be able to dig in and describe what my time has been taken up doing, my thinking and writing and notes, will be primarily at the end when I will have had time to organize my thoughts and conclusions and experiences along with the presentation of my finalized research.

Besides the reading and collecting I’ve done for my internship, I have attended a couple of events in the last week that have been on my mind and seem quite worth thinking about.

The first was my attendance of the Chibi Chibi Con dance, which prompted a lot of thought while I was there about how people interact and have fun and meet each other and all of these dynamics that were present in various ways at the dance. People cheering for each other as they showed off dancing skills or learned new ones, making a circle in the dance floor. People dancing with likely strangers, and in vastly different styles and skill levels at the same time. It’s interesting to think about social interaction and social dynamics for me because it’s so rich and has so many variables and factors. I can’t come to conclusions about it, because I don’t know nearly enough on the subject and the many variables mentioned earlier. But it seemed at the dance, and from past experiences the rest of the day as well, a makeshift community is formed. And being able to feel that and think about how many variables and conditions and situations had to have happened to create this community that seemed to have unspoken agreements and traditions built in, is a really powerful almost visceral feeling, even when you don’t know all the chains of action that allowed for it to happen.

The other very powerful experience I had this week was attending the showing of Allegiance in theater on the 19th. Allegiance is a musical about the Japanese Internment camps of WWII, a project primarily spearheaded by George Takei. The recording of the show has been shown in theaters twice now, one day only back in December, and one day only on the 19th. I was fortunate enough to see it on the 19th.

It is an incredibly powerful, moving, masterpiece of a musical. It’s seamless in the way each element, piece, memory, and word flows together. It was a visceral experience for me; it made me cry, and ache.

There were so many powerful elements, and one of them for me was the beautiful showcasing of different kinds of activism and different ways to approach problems.

Each character followed their ideas of what the right action to take was, and many of them were upset with each other for those actions. The entire show was a flashback in that it was memories of the last time this old man saw his family that was torn apart by the camps influence and by the actions each of them took to try and change the camps. One went to war for the country, one refused to, another wrote letters and got them smuggled out of the camps.

They condemned each other’s actions because seeing those actions from the inside it’s impossible to see they’re working for the same goal, but watching you can see every single aspect of that common goal and how each action helps further it, even if it blocks aspects of another’s actions.

It was beautiful and powerful and so teaching, I wish I could make every single person in the world watch it, and think about it. There are so many connections this musical could make with activism, history, war, racism, it’s very rich.

It was set at the Heart Mountain Internment camp, and that is where I will be geotagging this post. I did not actually go there, but it is an incredibly important part of this week’s learning.

Seminar Week 7: Bodies, Beauty, Masculinity, and Food

ComAlt, Sarah Williams.

Seminar Response Paper, Wk 7.

Zoe Wright.

2/21/17.

Tompkins Chapter 4.

“When, late in the first novel, an ‘improved’ and ‘Americanized’ Fun See comes to dinner, he attaches himself to Rose’s overweight Aunt Plenty, ‘whom he greatly admired as the stoutest lady in the company; plumpness being considered a beauty in his country.’ The desire for not-thin and therefore ‘unfashionable’ women is clearly stereotypical, and both Fun See and Aunt Plenty, as well as Annabel, are sent up via the text’s burlesque tone. Fun See’s fatness – and his desire for fatness, for indeed Annabel Bliss is herself called ‘plump as a partridge’ – is wielded against him as a mark of his lack of conventional western manliness.” (Tompkins, 141.)

“’I’m not breaking any news to say that race and culture have been at the forefront of the discussion lately,’ Pashman said. So, he thought, ‘maybe we could have a different approach to that conversation by starting with food.’ . .  . But, as some see it, the alternative to simply asking that question—is this food racist or not?—would be taking a closer look what’s at stake. Who stands to lose or gain from that assessment? And what are the solutions that might advance us toward greater equality and justice in the food arena?” (Erway, 2016)

I chose the lines from Tompkins because it made connections to the racialization of beauty and attraction, as well as to the idea that certain body types are undervalued or somehow less civilized. This connected to a lot of conversations around body positivity, body stereotyping, and representation of beauty and bodies in media. It also references masculinity and western ideals, and these also connect to much larger conversations on masculinity, performance of gender, bodies, ideals, and the value that’s attached to certain cultures’ ideals. I find these intersections and connections really dynamic and interesting to study because of the many different variables that influence them.

I chose these lines from an article about food, race, and cultural appropriation because they were speaking about the connection between food and race that seemed really appropriate to this study. I included the second piece from the story because it’s talking about privilege and what factors influence and impact which people’s lives, and it hints to the discussion in the article of who is allowed to have these types of conversations – about food and race and appropriation – and who isn’t, and who should be and whether the discussion itself was appropriation in a way, or whether it was taking away space from people of color who should get equal air time when they discuss these topics.

I thought this was a really interesting quick look at the dynamics at play between food, race, and appropriation, and it was so fitting to the course I had to include it.

Referenced Article:

Erway, C. (2016, March 31). Searching For Real Solutions to Food Appropriation. Retrieved February 11, 2017, from http://civileats.com/2016/03/31/beyond-talk-the-search-for-real-solutions-in-the-conversation-about-food-and-cultural-appropriation/

A Musing on Dynamics: Week 5 Reflection

In this week’s reflection I wanted to mention a topic that’s been floating around my mind over the last week or two. I want to type up some of the ideas, even if they’re not all solidified or based on strict scholarly work. It will help me in further thinking about them, maybe it will start some interesting conversations that can bring depth, and they’re definitely a part of my thoughts over the last weeks and thus a perfect fit for a weekly reflection.

A lot has been going on. Culture is rapidly creating itself around the new political climate we find ourselves. Everyone is commenting on or criticizing some part of the system, the people, their actions, policies, anything.

I think it’s really important to pay attention to those conversations that are happening on small scales because it informs you about how a large percentage of the population are feeling, not just academics and scholars, not just journalists and media representation. Even if the conversations you’re paying attention to still fall into a relatively small social circle, or couple or social circles, say Facebook or other social media circles, there can still be quite a broad spectrum of opinions flowing.

It’s also interesting to pay attention to the memes that are passed around through culture. To analyze memes themselves, and their role in the creation of culture, community, identity, and the spread of knowledge is a very high caliber task, and to do it properly requires a much greater access to communities and ability to look at statistics of sharing and types and content and all that lovely data. I am not in a position to take on that burden.

But I am interested by certain trends and ideas that I am exposed too in different way through the spread of memes, screenshotted tweets, etc. Usually they are not ideas I am entirely unfamiliar with, and to see a little slice of what many people are relating to an identifying with is really interesting, especially if there is a deeper theory that can be applied to the conversations that are happening over this media.

The conversation I want to think about with this piece is the connection between capitalistic gain from social justice alliances and trends. And then conversely, capitalistic loss from social justice movements.

Of course there has already been discussion, demonstration, and study of how protests like boycotting and strikes creates change. Protest, strikes, and disruption of economic activity are examples of loss of capital.

But in the last couple weeks have brought up conversations about the dynamics of how corporations can positively benefit from social justice movements.

I’ve seen a lot of headlines about how this company or that has created ‘heartbreaking’ ‘important’ ‘progressive’ ad that includes a same sex couple or family or a positive supportive message about refugees and creating change. And while it’s great that it’s happening, there’s also an aspect of it that feels . . . opportunistic.

There’s a good incentive right now to take various political standpoints. It might lose the company some customers, but it might also gain a whole lot.

Over the last few weeks memes have popped up about Starbucks suddenly becoming everybody’s favorite coffee place because of their support of, I think it was refugees and veterans. And sure, it’s good when a company with resources pledges to support marginalized communities, even in very particular ways.

But it’s interesting to consider the incentive pathways for various companies and industries. Advertising and capital becomes a very tangled beast when trying to differentiate between truly and deeply held values and acting in particular ways to gain profit. Examining monetary incentives and funding decisions for big corporations, government subsidies, and scientific research can lead to some interesting conflict of interests.

This is something I’ve been thinking about over the last few weeks. I don’t have anything really specific, and I haven’t really gathered any particular cases or studies to talk about, and I don’t seem to be having a real easy time making the right words come out in this piece.

But it’s an interesting dynamic to think about, and I think it’s worth discussion and study.

Labor, Oppression, Empowerment, and Technology Of Food. (Weeks 4 and 5 reflection)

There was talk about the labor it takes to produce food in the first few chapters of Tompkins, and during the production of our potluck lunches and tastings and seminars. I think it’s a topic that deserves more discussion.

Perhaps this is a brief overview of what I have learned about food and labor, perhaps it is an example of connections that can be further studied, perhaps it will bring up some dynamics that haven’t been discussed or thought about yet. In any event, it is helpful in the context of this course.

There is definitely a gendered dynamic to food production. Typicallly and traditionally much food preparation is done by women or femme people. That food production labor can lead to oppression or empowerment, depending of course on circumstance and context and what ability each individual has to wield power of influence over their own lives and the lives of others.

This dynamic between empowerment and oppression can also be influenced by the interaction of technology. We have seen this in other areas as well. In my research project on the safety of sex toys I noted in my research that the technology of sex toys, especially the vibrator, has moved from a tool of oppression – because it was originally a tool to assist doctors in administering “paroxysms” (orgasms) to their female patients suffering from “hysteria” which could be indicated by any number of symptoms that are today generally considered symptoms of being frustrated and unfulfilled both in the quality of life and quality of sex – to a tool of empowerment – as it was when it became available for general consumers and became a symbol of sexual liberation around feminist movements when women could use it to control their own pleasure, without needing to rely on another person’s input or control.

I can see parallels in food technology as well as I consider labor saving devices and storage methods that also have the effect of distancing the end point of food from the beginning of production. Food production in its entirety is an incredibly labor intensive process. Farms must be maintained, planted, harvested. Harvested food must be shipped, processed, packaged, and shipped again and perhaps stored for various amounts of time at each part of the process. Once purchased from a store the food must be prepared in various ways which of itself can take a very long time, depending on the type of food and type of meal prepared.

The technology that has gone into improved farming, shipping, processing, packaging, and storage equipment has been a labor saving endeavor. It distances the end product of food from the beginning point by time, by geographical distance, by season, and by cultural recognition between the beginning point of food, a plant or seed or flower and the well dressed salad, intricately spiced main course, and sweetened and artfully presented desert.

In addition to the technology needed to on the side of food pre-meal-preparation, there has been great technology increases on the meal preparation area as well. Food processors, fridges, grinders, pots, pans, ovens, sinks, dishwashers, rice cookers, bread machines, mixers, blenders, garbage disposals, vacuum sealers, even sponges and detergents. Each piece of technology, each appliance in a kitchen has been created to reduce or ease the labor that goes into food preparation, food storage, and cleanup. Each thing also creates more distance between the origin of foods and the end result, though in different ways.

Now, as far as this technology and distance serves as both as a source of oppression and empowerment, especially in the gendered environment we live in, can be traced in advertising I’m sure.

For this technology has made laboring over food more enjoyable, easier. It’s marketed as a level of expertise, a value added option to social status. It is in a way a tool that encourages the continuation of the gendered divide of food preparation and makes the oppression of being societally required to perform a role seem more appealing because fancy equipment and being valued as an expert in something, in the traditionally considered emotional aspects assigned to women and femme people – the joy and pride of taking care of those around you.

But while this technology has these negative implications, it also has empowering ones. Technology reduces the time and labor it takes to prepare meals. Thus time is opened up for other pursuits, energy is saved that can be spent in other ways. It opens up a space for change. And that space can be incredibly powerful, and many forms of hell raising can come from its availability.

I find it really interesting to consider these dynamics, and I hope that this outline of some of the dynamics I can is interesting to someone.

Connections and Frustrations: Week 6 Seminar response.

ComAlt, Sarah Williams.

Seminar Response paper, Wk 6.

Zoe Wright.

2/14/17

LaDuke Selections; Newman Chapters 6, 7, and 8.

“Dubbed ‘Konvict Kush’, all the marijuana is grown on prison grounds. ‘The inmates enjoy the agricultural part of growing the cannabis plants,’ Norton said. ‘We have a waiting list of prisoners wanting to trim the buds.’ With rising prison costs, the economics of marijuana production makes good math. ‘We keep half of the crop and the rest goes to local Colorado pot dispensaries. Our current projection indicates prison weed sales will cover thirty percent of the incarceration cost by 2020.’” (LaDuke, 219.)

“England’s role in the development of America’s beef trade is considerable. As ‘the great beef-eaters of Europe,’ the English (at least the middle and upper classes) consumed far more beef than their continental neighbors. Meat, and particularly beef, was believed to ensure greater strength and vitality. It wasn’t just part of the meal, beef was part of the lifestyle, conveying affluence and contentment.” (Newman, 93)

“As the number of affected people, especially children, increases, one could say the food industry has entered an age of allergens. More people are avoiding certain food items because of medical conditions. The trend has researchers seeking solutions, or ways to make such foods safer for those with allergies.” (Gelski, 2016)

I chose the lines from LaDuke because of the connections this lines makes to so many complex systems in the country; the prison system, prison labor, and for-profit prisons, the economic implications of marijuana, the medical implications of marijuana, and all of the less direct connections these systems make to other systems. To study the words in these sentences and the meanings and connections they take will lead you to these larger scale connections I drew as I read the lines.

I chose these lines from Newman because I find the different dynamics between the way different cultures consider meat interesting, especially in the social and political forces that have changed the way people think of and eat various kinds of meat.

I chose this article “Special Report: Changing Food To Fit An Allergen Age” and this quote from it because it frustrates me. Because the conversations around allergies, food sensitivities, and pharmaceutical sensitivities frustrates me. These chosen lines illustrate why. The industry is focused on changing food itself, modifying it in various ways to make it safe. But there is no research going into why this change has happened. Why are more people allergic to food? Why are the types of allergies changing and broadening? Is it something we have done? A change in our evolution? The way we make our food? The way we store it, prepare it? What created this change? There is no research being done into that, and that makes me incredibly frustrated. Because until you understand the problem and its origin there can be no long term, well understood solution.

My first chosen lines mark connections to large systems that a simple program has. My second chosen lines look at a dynamic and a change in attitudes that the rest of the chapter in part tackles. My third selection is chosen out of frustration that those larger scale dynamics, systemic connections, and affects are not being studied whatsoever.

Referenced Article.

Gelski, J. (2016, February 6). Special report: Changing food to fit an allergen age. Retrieved February 11, 2017, from http://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/news_home/Research/2017/02/Special_report_Changing_food_t.aspx?ID={1D4DFC61-E553-4D31-B53A-A13C39894493}

The Importance of Connections: Week 4 Reflections.

I’ve found a lot of my time these last few weeks focused quite a bit on reading articles, watching videos, and paying attention to the interactions and conversations of people around me. Under my learning objective to understand the connections between and importance of activism, social justice work, and education, I don’t think that paying attention to the smaller details happening around me is a bad thing.

I love theory and I love making huge connections and putting ideas in context and conversation with each other. But a big critique of mainstream higher education is that it depersonalizes what it teaches, and lessens the ability to apply the big picture theoretical knowledge you gain to the local and personal, to the interactions that happen between people.

You cannot learn everything there is to know from a traditional classroom. You won’t always be able to see the big picture if you only have experience with local affairs and personal interactions. There has to be some kind of balance between the various ways to learn and take action. And that’s what a big part of my studies this quarter have been.

In the last weeks I watched a collection of TED Talks and quite a few videos from the Youtuber Ash Hardell, an educator on topics of gender, sexuality, and expression. I’ve read articles commenting on the actions people are taking, and I’ve paid attention to the conversations that the professors, teachers, and mentors in my life are having.

Watching these videos and articles has been important to me because it’s a practice of making connections, of gaining context and working with frameworks and big ideas and small personalized ideas at the same time. It’s listening to people’s experiences and thinking about how they fit with larger theories, and if they don’t fit, why don’t they? What’s missing in the theory that’s not taken into account?

To me, that is what a really good education should do. It should teach you how to make connections and take any piece of information, media, or material and learn something from it. To add to the way you see the world.

I am really enjoying taking the time and putting in the effort to include smaller pieces of writing, videos, and less formal lectures in my learning method. It’s been really fun to make connections between a discussion between Toni Morrison and Angela Davis that I watched in the first week or two, and a TED Talk discussing the power prosecutors have to create positive change in young lives. To read an article about the misappropriation of MLK’s legacy to take power away from the protestors of the present that connects to so many previous seminar discussions about protests, power, accountability, and respectability politics.

I am also looking forward to taking on some more theory and bigger ideas in the next half of the quarter, and on reading a lot of journal articles for my internship literature review. I think that will become what takes up most of my time over the next several weeks as I look for broader connections, agreements, and disagreements and explore the depth and breadth of research done on trans and queer spaces in higher education.

Week five Seminar Response: So many Connections, so few words.

ComAlt, Sarah Williams.

Seminar Response Paper, wk 5

Zoe Wright

Tompkins Chapter 3, Newman Chapter 5, Selections of LaDuke.

“We return again, as well, to the ways that the language of food allows for the exploration of the fine line between animal and human: here, however, the line has a particularly racist connotation, as Haley attaches Eliza’s body to the category of animal – and, of course, not just any animal but a dead animal slaughtered for human consumption.” (Tompkins, 105)

“Compared with the polished robber barons of the midwestern grain machine, the merchants who dealt in produce were more likely to be newly arrived immigrants, struggling to build a family business.” (Newman, 65

“This was an enforced famine, the result of British policy. Wheat harvests flourished in Ireland during the famine, but the British harvested and exported these crops to feed their people in their colonial conquests worldwide. Had the Irish been able to access this food source, the numbers who died from hunger would have been far fewer.” (Laduke, 90)

“As interest in medical cannabis has increased, the terms “organic” and “sustainably grown” have become trendy buzzwords within the industry. There is obviously a need to propagate more cannabis to supply a large consumer demand, but the “more for your money” approach to growing has not been conducive to healthy stewardship of the land. Our corporate-dominated agricultural system is broken, and the cannabis industry should not emulate its worst features.” (Russo, 2016)

I am noticing that I the lines I choose from Tompkins book often have to do with the distinction and discussion of animals and humans and their value. I think this is because I can recognize and place these lines in context of my own experience, while much of the rest of Tompkins work sits in a kind of vacuum. I am learning from it, but there is no preexisting framework in my mind to facilitate that learning. I chose these lines in particular because of the connection between being considered an animal and racist connotations of being considered an animal, or less than a person. This has a lot of connections, from voting politics of the one third of a person law, to the treatment of slaves as property, to the association of savage, ‘lower or less civilized’ humans with being wild or feral animals.

In Newman’s quote, I liked the note about which areas of food were run by which types of people, because if there is such a difference in what kind of people are in what positions, it is good to know why. In this case it is that the egg market is less stable than the grain market, so people with means stay away from eggs, while people without means do what they can with what’s available to them.

I chose the lines from LaDuke to quote because it connected to my knowledge of colonialism and capitalism, and it made a connection in my mind to the book The Sea of Poppies (About the poppy trade between Britain, India, and China) by Amitav Ghosh because it was describing a colonizing country forcing its subject to produce a certain crop at the expense of their ability to gain food.

I chose this article because I was looking for something about monocropping, as it was discussed in LaDuke around potatoes, and I thought it would be a timely and connected subject. I chose this article because it amused me that it was discussing marijuana in terms of sustainability in production, and because it interested me that it was already being discussed in terms of sustainability even though it seems like the demand for this crop is relatively new.

Referenced article:

Russo, S. (2016, May 6). Marijuana, Not Monoculture: How to Make Your Pot Crop Sustainable. AlterNet. Retrieved from http://www.alternet.org/drugs/marijuana-not-monoculture-how-make-pot-crop-sustainable

Tasting Practicum Reflections on weeks 2 and 3: Ritual, Practice, and Change.

There are many rituals and practices that surround people’s experiences. Rituals, patterns, traditions, are attached to nearly everything we do, even food. The study of rituals around food, farming, cooking, and eating have been the subject of anthropological studies, cultural studies, and part of the feeling of identity within current cultures. I think it’s an interesting exercise to think about the rituals around food and eating we have in our current lives, since it’s an important aspect of studying ancient peoples and cultures, it can certainly be helpful in studying living people.

During our week 2 potluck, before everyone started eating, a couple people spoke about different ways they wanted to appreciate, acknowledge, or think about food while they were eating. One spoke about taking a moment to be silent and think about the origin of the food, how it would nourish, and how important it was to acknowledge. Another thought that eating while having our seminar discussion itself would add an important dimension to our experiential learning.

Each of us has memories and traditions associated with food and how to eat, and these experiences influence the ways we want to experience eating and food.

During week three potluck and tasting time, I noticed several aspects of behavior. Those who were putting together spice packs and coating the salmon with salt and sugar mixes were grouped together, debating and discussing and becoming a hub of activity. The lights in the classroom weren’t as bright as they were the rest of the day, but I don’t actually remember whether that was because a different amount of outside light was coming out, whether someone had turned down the lights, or if it just seemed that way. The couple of people who were putting the final touches on the potluck lunch had candles by their station, and were playing music. There were a few scragglers, myself included, who weren’t participating in either of these activities.

For me, this was a time for me to be quiet and rest. I’m not used to being around classmates for an entire day. Usually my lunch break allows me to be somewhere else, or with particular people or in a different place. For me, this has been a very vital part of staying focused, being able to pay attention, and not be overwhelmed by social interaction. This break time is not a time that I am relaxed, exactly, but it is a time that I have always been able to shut down, and not think about anything important. It allowed me to be able to charge in time to go to seminars and second half of day activities and being to function. With this program, I don’t have that mid day time that I can shut down that part of my mind that must be alert around other’s, and I’ve had to adjust my approach to the day so I can stay focused. So on this day, it was helpful to be able to just sit and watch what others were doing. To eat my own food and not think about anything in particular. For this piece, the observations I jotted down while I was resting my mind were helpful and productive.

Food rituals can be formal, informal, personal, spiritual, traditional, or new. They can have multiple aspects of these at once. A formal meal could be something with extended family, a black tie fundraiser, or a practice of religion or spirituality. A personal, casual meal can recharge your body and relax your mind. Memories can be strongly tied with food, or the smells and tastes of food.

The parts of the rituals around food can be the food itself, how it tastes, how it smells; the preparation of the food, with someone else, alone, using a specific teapot for a particular tea; the preparation of how you eat, the utensils, table, couch, movie, music, silence good dishes, plastic tupperware, do you take a moment before you eat to recognize the food and the effort; the time of the meal, holidays, time of day, related to a particular action like harvest; the clean up after a meal can be a separate or included ritual also, who cleans the dishes, who puts away the food and how; and the lack of eating or meals can have significance as well. Fasting and breaking fast are important aspects of many different cultures.

These aspects of food and performance and eating are important to note, even if noting them doesn’t have any impact on your practices in the long run. Because it might teach you something, it might teach someone else someone, it might help you recognize a part of a self care routine, or a part of something that stressed you out, or disconnects you from community.

We spoke during seminar about the way that potlucks can’t be a go to activity anymore, because of so many dietary restrictions and issues. Part of this is probably purely for reasons of preference, what people will or won’t eat, but it’s also for health and medical reasons.

It’s curious to consider the different parts of our use of technology or cultural shifts and how they might have impacted the ability for people to participate in putlucks. When I was little, I enjoyed potlucks, but there was always a large section of food I couldn’t eat, and usually I couldn’t tell which foods I couldn’t eat. I had to trust my mom to find out from the people that made the food which dishes were vegetarian, and we had to trust that they really knew what that meant. So many people are unaware or misinformed about different types of diets and allergies. I have always been frustrated and amused by the conversations that go a little like this; “you’re a vegetarian? Oh cool, so am I!” (pause) “well but I don’t count fish/chicken/shellfish because (reason), so I eat those sometimes. But otherwise I’m totally a vegetarian.” Those conversations are frustrating because they spread misinformation about what being vegetarian means, or at least what it has always meant to me, and then suddenly people will say they understand what it means and still cook fish/chicken/etc because someone else they knew was a vegetarian but still ate that.

Which can be a very unpleasant experience, because if you don’t know what’s in your food and eat it, and you’ve been vegetarian long enough, you can’t digest meat. So upset stomach and unpleasant night’s ahead! Me and my mom has always been careful enough with my food that that hasn’t happened to me, but it’s happened to my parents a lot. For my dad, when a friend painstaking prepared a meal, checking constantly about what could be in it or not lead to a very painful day or two because they didn’t realize that chicken broth wasn’t vegetarian, and when my dad eats meat it sets off his arthritis and leaves him in pain.

I don’t know when these kinds of health issues, and allergies, started to become so prevalent in our world, because there aren’t any studies that have been done it that I’m aware of. But they haven’t always been so widespread, and because it seems so new, the rituals around food haven’t changed to account for them, and those who have different diets or allergies must be extremely vigilant around the food they eat and how it’s been prepared, they have to question the rituals other’s go through to prepare food, which becomes a ritual (or a practice) in itself.

For me personally, it is hard to constantly turn down people’s offers to cook or share food. I feel bad because I cannot partake in something that someone spent time and effort in preparing. To have to interrogate anyone offering food about what’s in it and how it was prepared, because them reassuringly saying that it’s ‘all natural’ really doesn’t mean anything to me. My allergies are to natural substances that are usually considered healthy. I have the interesting experience that I can eat (in general) either expensive, organic vegan/vegetarian dishes, or the cheapest, processed food, but the middle ground is where most of my allergies lie. There is one tomato sauce I can eat, that you can get only at the dollar store. I can eat it because it’s made cheaply enough to not have olive or canola or sunflower oil in it, and it’s in a glass jar rather than a can. So to determine whether I can eat something someone else has prepared I have to know if they regularly cook meat in the dishes they used to prepare the food, I have to know if they used canned foods, I have to know if they used cooking spray or oil, and then what kind. I have to interrogate the entire chain of production to make sure it won’t make me sick. So many things that I am allergic to get into people’s food without their conscious awareness of it happening.

The preparation of the kale we harvested week 3 is a good example of this. I picked some kale leaves from the field with my own hands. At that point I can eat them, sure. When we massaged them, the person sitting next to me commented that they smelled and felt oily. They were still considered by most in the class as ‘just kale’. But only moments later it was noted that the leaves has been drizzled in olive oil. Still ‘just kale’? By most people’s perspective, the oil added in this step unbeknownst to the room was inconsequential, a nothing. But that inconsequential step would mean a migraine for up to several days if ingested, to me.

So instead of performing that interrogation ritual, it’s easier to perform the apologetic refusal ritual.

My conclusions from these observations and notes is that it’s very important to consider what rituals each of us go through around food, eating, and preparation and why we do each of those things. Which parts are important and meaningful, which are autopilot or habit and why? In addition, it would be interesting to know more about the variables and factors in how people’s ability to participate in things like potlucks has changed over the last decades.

Wk 3 Reflection: Staying Outraged and Writing Accomplished

Week Three Reflection: Staying Outraged

Out of the various articles and pieces of writing that I read over the last week, my reaction to one in particular surprised me. It was called “How to #StayOutraged Without Losing Your Mind” and it talked about how to keep yourself from creating a ‘new normal’ in this political climate where so much is threatening so many people’s lives and freedom. It talked about how to momentarily distance yourself from news so it doesn’t become ingrained as what is happening, about how to start participating and doing little things to resist and protest and start participating. I spoke in last week’s reflection about trying to find where I should be in terms of activism and social justice work, and while I don’t want to revisit any of that, my reaction to this article felt particularly important. I was overwhelmed with emotion as I read through the points it made. It made me feel hopeful that I could help create change, scared for that will happen before it gets better, frustrated that I don’t feel the strength I think I should, and it broke the feeling of numbness I hadn’t noticed permeating my mood. I think there is something really important in anything that can break through that numbness, so that we can really be aware and be able to engage and participate in the crap we are about to go through.

As a report of what I have done this week, a lot of my time was taken up in writing a piece I have been thinking about for quite some time. Back in November I came across a contest with the prompt “Are Digital Technologies Making Politics Impossible?” Since then I’ve been thinking about it, writing notes, trying to write drafts, and battling a good deal of self doubt on whether I should feel like I have any authority or credibility in writing a response to that question. Over the last week I made a last ditch effort at taming that self doubt and writing a reasonably decent response. And I am proud of what I managed to create. It feels important, and it feels thought out. I’ve been thinking about which things were important to talk about within the word limit, and about how those topics should be strung together. How it could be built upon for a further, more in depth work. In the last week I finished writing an absolute crap draft, and I turned it into something that I am proud of and happy with. I’m not going to share this piece of writing on this blog because I don’t want it to be available to the public, but if anyone is interested in my conclusions, I am willing to share a hard copy.

My internship has been slow to get started, but I have begun collecting articles with interesting looking abstracts to read, and I am working on finding an organizational method that works for me to keep track of how I find and work with the articles I’m going to be using. I expect there will be more to report on this by next week.