Ambience and Practical considerations

So my final post for this paper. 

Ambiance, as described by the Concise English Dictionary (1990) is "the mood, character, quality, tone and atmosphere etc., particularly of an environment" (p. 31).  Ambience basically sums up the essence of an activity and the surrounding atmosphere generated by the activity.  For cooking that means eating the food.

Practical considerations on the other hand take note of the objects and tools necessary to engage successfully in occupations (Christiansen & Townsend, 2004).  For cooking this means that if I don't have the right ingredients or the right equipment (for example an electric whisk to whip cream) my job is made very difficult or near impossible.

This weekend, we had friends over to watch the World Cup.  Each brought a salad to go with the barbeque that we had planned and I make a banoffee pie for pudding.  First I had to consider the practical side of how I was going to make this pudding; did I have room in the fridge?, did I have the ingredients, equipment to make it?  Not necessarily... but I could organise myself to meet these practical considerations.

I really enjoyed making the pie because it is a while since I cooked for pleasure - whilst I was making it considered the eating experience to come - essentially a group of friends gathering together to eat in readyness for watching the World Cup final.

Visser (1992) states it quite aptly - "We turn the consumption of food, a biological necessity, into a carefully cultured phenomenon. We use eating as a medium for social relationships: satisfaction of the most individual of needs becomes the means of creating community" (p. ix).  By creating this atmosphere from cooking and food, we create the ambience.

I considered the scene later when we were eating..the food created an atmosphere of comraderie, we all sat together and ate..which then set us up to do the same watching the rugby...through cooking, and the food it produced  the ambience for the evening was determined.

References

Christiansen, C. H. & Townsend, E. A. (2004).  An introduction to occupation.  In C. H. Christiansen & E. A. Townsend (Eds.), Introduction to occupation: The art and science of living (pp. 1-28).  New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Hayward, L.A. & Sparkes, J.J. (1990). The Concise English Dictionary (4th ed.).  Great Britian: Mackays of Chatham PLC.  

Visser M. (1992). The rituals of dinner. London, England: The Penguin Group.

Reference list for the 6 blog postings

Arendt, H. (1958).  The human condition.  Chicago, USA: Chicago University Press.

Butler, M.  (2011).  Affordances (cont).  Unpublished, cited with the permission of the author.  Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago Polytechnic School of Occupational Therapy.

Caulton, R. & Dickson, R.  (2007).  What’s going on? Finding an explanation for what we do.  In J. Creek & A. Lawson-Porter (Eds.), Contemporary issues in occupational therapy (pp. 87-114).  Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Christiansen, C. H. & Townsend E. A. (2004).  An introduction to occupation.  In C. H. Christiansen & E. A. Townsend (Eds.),  Introduction to occupation: The art and science of living (pp. 1-28).  New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education, Inc.

de Lore,  C. & Brook-White, J. (2000).  Every kitchen tells a story.  New Zealand: HarperCollins Publishers.

Fisher, M. & Yeats, M. (1995).  Interview with Martin Fisher - Violin maker.  Occupation, 6(2), 24-34.

Green, T. F. (1968).  Work, leisure and the American schools.  New York, USA: Random House.

Hayward, L.A. & Sparkes, J.J. (1990). The Concise English Dictionary (4th ed.).  Great Britian: Mackays of Chatham PLC.  

Leach, H. (1997).  Are we selling out on domestic life? Occupation, 5(1), 10-16.

Visser, M. (1992).  The rituals of dinner.  London, England: The Penguin Group.

Comments I have made on other student's blogs

Anna said...

Hi Izabela I really enjoyed reading this post and like the way you used the senses to describe your mindfulness. I wonder if you have considered (maybe from an OT perspective of working with a client) what might affect a person from working mindfully and what could help a future client reach that state of mindfulness? Cheers Anna :)

16 October 2011 18:19  

Anna said...

Hey Cara..I really like the way you used literature to illustrate your understanding of ergonomics and know appreciate how ergonomics can relate to both a group setting and an individual completing a project. I think it would be interesting to see how you think you would change the way you set about starting a project (ergonomically speaking) when you haven't attempted a particular design before.

25 September 2011 18:18

Anna said...

Hi Sarah I really enjoyed reading this post and understanding your take on spirituality..it can be a rather ambiguous term but the way you have described it in connection to your Nana really makes sense to me :) I wonder if you have reflected on how feeling spiritually connected to your Nana through running makes you feel i.e. what feelings or emotions this affords you? Anna :)

16 October 2011 18:40  

Anna said...

Hi Nancy I really enjoyed reading this blog on ergonomics and how you need to consider things such as the environment and abilities of people when playing card games. I wonder if you have thought about the different motivations of the people playing the game.. if for example you are playing with highly competitive people would you play differently yourself? Cheers Anna

24 October 2011 22:05 

My activity and me

According to Arendt (1958), “labour is the activity which corresponds to the biological process of the human body” (whereas) “work is the activity which corresponds to the unnaturalness of human existence” (p. 7).

From this I understand that labour is done out of necessity; we have to do it to survive.  Work however is a choice, it is something we find enjoyable and our survival does not rely on it.  When I cook, according to Green (1968), I am labouring: "whatever is produced by labor is produced to be consumed, not to be put into use" (p. 18).

The cooking I do every day it represents that I am a mother, a nurturer and an organiser - these words describe the roles I take on out of the necessity to provide for my family.  If however I think about the cooking I do out of enjoyment, I am still a mother and nurturer but also a creator and a researcher.  Essentially I am a person with different values when I cook out of necessity versus out of want.

So 'why do I need to do this activity?'.  I cook for different reasons – some days I simply labour; other days when I have more time I labour and work.

I labour to cook in order to keep my family alive, safe and physically healthy; also to keep order in my family life and therefore reduce my own anxieties.

On the contrary, I work to cook to provide interesting and tasty meals for my family; to create an environment of sitting together to eat and communicate; to find pleasure and relaxation for myself and hold onto memories of cooking with my mum; and to cook with my daughter in order to create connections for her to the activity.

Fundamentally cooking is cooking, however when I differentiate between the labour side of cooking and the work side of cooking they have very different meanings for me personally.

References

Arendt, H. (1958).  The human condition.  Chicago, USA: Chicago University Press.

Green, T. F. (1968).  Work, leisure and the American schools.  New York, USA: Random House.

Affordances continued

My last post talked about affordances and how the activities we do bring us opportunities.

The act of cooking for me affords communication.  Relationships and roles are built within my family by collaboration for example “what shall we eat this week?; appreciation (verbal or non verbal) for feeding them; and instruction and conveyance of knowledge when my children are helping me in the kitchen.  My very presence in the kitchen often affords communication with my family because the kitchen is the heart of our home and we are always in it or passing through it.  

According to de Lore and Brooke-White (2000), in any home, the kitchen is often the place where friends and family congregate...it’s where the food and the drink are, but kitchens are seldom just refuelling stations. Conversations, gossip humour and ideas flow freely in the relaxed atmosphere of the kitchen.

Connections refer to what the activity leads to us doing.  For example Visser (1992), whilst talking about finding and supplying ourselves with food continued: “Next we buy it, carry it home...Then we prepare it, clean it, skin, chop, cook, and dish it up.  Now comes the climax of all our efforts, the easiest part: eating it” (p. ?).

Cooking does afford the obvious of preparation and eating but there is more to connections than that. Through cooking I have the opportunity to care for my family and take responsibility for their well-being.  Cooking also give me the opportunity to spend more time with my friends for example when the neighbours kids were playing at our house on the weekend, I started cooking dinner and they and their parents ended up staying which led to a few glasses of wine and fun for the children. 

These examples illustrate that often cooking is not just cooking for me..there are many things that branch from cooking  that bring about the opportunity for other activities.




References

de Lore,  C. & Brook-White, J. (2000).  Every kitchen tells a story.  New Zealand: HarperCollins Publishers.

Visser, M. (1992).  The rituals of dinner.  London, England: The Penguin Group.

Affordances - An introduction

According to Christiansen and Townsend (2004), “affordances are environmental properties that both induce and support goal-directed behaviour” (p. 18).  In other words, factors within our environment, physical and social, provide us the potential for behaviour or opportunity.

In an article by Helen Leach called 'Are we selling out on domestic life?' she raises an interesting point about how society views domestic chores.  A service exists in Australia whose purpose is to "release you from tedious, demeaning tasks, so that you can concentrate on your career, your real work" (Leach, 1997, p.10).  And the cost of selling out on domestic life?  According to Leach, "food preparation in the home will be confined to heating prepared meals, and simple mixing of items from packets and containers" (p. 15).  How sad! Yes I do heat meals and use jars of sauce but if that was to be my everyday experience of cooking, I would miss out on so many factors that cooking affords me.

Cooking has a spiritual aspect for me.  Spirituality can refer to the potential for feeling connected with the universe through this activity (Butler, 2011).  In a previous post I said I like to feel in control.. by being organised with our family meals and knowing that I am doing the best for our health and routine, gives me a sense that my spirit or mind is organised.  In this state I feel happier and less stressed by my role as a mother and provider.

Another example is how the environment or activity helps us link with history and memories.  I spoke about ‘comfort food’ in my first blog..memories of my mum making cottage pie on cold winter weekends or when I got home after I gave birth to Ella, lead me to making the same dish if I am feeling cold or homesick for England.  I remember watching my mum juggle a teaching job and cooking for a family of five and this has influenced how I juggle my family commitments – through remembering how my mum did it, we still have home cooked meals..they are just often made in advance and frozen.

Yum! Cottage pie!

References

Christiansen, C. H. & Townsend E. A. (2004).  An introduction to occupation.  In C. H. Christiansen & E. A. Townsend (Eds.),  Introduction to occupation: The art and science of living (pp. 1-28).  New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Butler, M.  (2011).  Affordances (cont).  Unpublished, cited with the permission of the author.  Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago Polytechnic School of Occupational Therapy.

Leach, H. (1997).  Are we selling out on domestic life? Occupation, 5(1), 10-16.