Category Archives: Development

I Got The Power!

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On Thursday we drew straws to decide which of us would be the feeders and which of us would be the eaters or gainers. The idea behind the drawing of the straws was control. We wanted who ever ended up eating to have had as little control over this decision as possible, to correlate with the feeder/gainer relationship in which the feeder has complete control over the gainers food intake.

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Photo by Lauren Watson, 2013

Having said in a previous post that I was not particularly comfortable with the ‘gainer’ side of the relationship it was no big surprise how relieved I was to draw the long straw and become a feeder.

(LaurenWithTheDramaTattoo, 2013)

I do not expect our performance to be easy for anyone, in fact I expect it will push each and every member of our group mentally. For me I imagine the main challenge to be the control: will I become used to the level of control I have? Will I end up liking the control? Would it be wrong for me to like the control?

Each feeder then chose a “gainer” to feed during the performance. I chose Lauren Watson. From that moment on she was my gainer-the person I will have control of during the performance.

The next step for me as a feeder is deciding what food to buy and make for the gainers. With butter, cheese, chocolate and pleanty of carbohydrates in mind me, Kirsty T, and Jess made our way to Morrisons supermarket to buy our food. We decided to video record this experience, as well as the process of us making the food so that it could be played behind the performers on the day of the performance. The idea behind this was to show the audience the extent to which we, as feeders, had control over what they gainers were being fed. Shopping bags full, we left Morrisons, actually quite excited to cook our food!

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Photo by Tom Baines, 2013

Works Cited

(LaurenWithTheDramaTattoo (2013) Feeder Contemporary Experimental: Drawing Straws [Online Video] Available from http://youtu.be/mdqz0-Dl2IA [Accessed 9 December 2013].

One Word: Fetish

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Feeder Fetish: What is it? Who has it? Where does it come from? What’s the difference in liking food or becoming an obsession? Where’s the transition?  These questions are being explored through on going research and allowing me to create my own opinion on the matter.

Fetishes is something that I am not personally come across before, neither am I obsessed with anything for it to become a sexual desire of mine. This experiment is helping me understand the urgencies in which some people have with food. So what does the word fetish mean? You may get a different response to this question depending who you ask this to. However the dictionary states:-

a form of sexual desire in which gratification is linked to an abnormal degree to a particular object, item of clothing, part of the body,  (Oxford University Press,2013)

With recent documentation from Channel 4, Big Fat Fetish in May 2012, which was an documentation on food fetish’s discussing their relationship with foods. Many people questioned their sexual desire towards food and is this seen as ‘normal?’ However this is something in which they saw as ‘normal’ and the fetish was a necessary sexual desire for them.  But do we know what the word ‘normal’ really means? Who makes the decision to define what normal is? This could lead into a debate of is the word fetish valid? The next step is to record a conversation between us and discuss the relevance of fetishes in todays context and how we connect differently to objects not necessary in a sexual desire but emotionally. When I first heard about Food fetish’s I automatically judged, I saw it as something weird, strange and not something I would ever understand, but through this process and research I am coming to a understanding everyone has different relationships with food.

Work Cited

Oxford University Press (2013) Fetish. [Online] Available from: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/fetish [Accessed 4/12/13]

 

The Making Of Food

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Nutrition plays a vital part with our bodies, which keeps us growing, this educates and develops our knowledge with taste, smells and experience with foods.  Process of food changes within the social context that I am in, for instance, I relate food as a pleasurable and social situation making the process of food something I enjoy doing.  When making a homemade dinner I tend to add spices and different flavours to create a tasteful dinner which I appreciate it.

‘Cooking is a moral process, transferring raw matter from ‘nature’ to the state of ‘culture’, and thereby taming and domesticating it. This act may be as simple as plucking a piece of fruit from a tree and washing it, or cutting it with a knife, or it may be as complex as the greatest creations of haute cuisine, requiring hours of preparation. Food is therefore ‘civilized’ by cooking, not simply at the level of practice, but at the level of the imagination.’ (Lupton.D, 1996, 2)

Cooking is a process which is something I enjoy doing, for some people it can be seen as a hobby. It’s a way of learning, interacting, being creative and experimental with food.  The control is in your hands.

Do you find yourself appreciating a homemade dinner better than you would if some else makes it? Personally I find when making your own food you do appreciate the hard work which you put into the process of making it, to seeing the finished product, it’s a sense of achievement. What happens to when you switch the roles round? When someone else makes your food? Do you freak out and tend to question everything that is put into the recipe or do you naturally leave that person to it? These questions may just raise a few open discussions about how people process their food and the control they have, choosing to eat particular foods. With cooking your own food you have the choice to choose certain foods we like, our calories intake and portions sizes, having that control over the choices we make creates a balanced relationship with food. ‘We say “we know what we like”, but it would be more accurate to say “we like what we know”.’ (Fisher, Bender, 1979,113) With experience, we create judgement from presentation, to smells, creating an overall opinion before tasting the food.

     ‘from earliest infancy, the experience of easting is intertwined with their experience of close human contact with the provider of the food-the bodily warmth, the touch of the other’s flesh, their smell, the sounds they make- and the emotions and sensations aroused by this experience….enjoying filling the stomach…emotional and sensual responses to the person or people who provide the food’ (Lupton, 1996,7,8)

Our experimental explores the relationship between the Feeder and Gainer and how the control is completely in the feeders hand, this allows the feeder to produce the foods, adding a high calorie intake into each product.  Not only does this explore the relationship between the food and the Gainer, the Feeder develops an intimate relationship with the food. This is clear due to the overall control of the Feeder, due to them knowing the ingredients within the finished recipes, which may create an emotional attachment to certain recipes, making the Gainer eat more of what the Feeder likes, due to their personal experience with that particular dish.

Work Cited

Lupton,D. (1996) Food, the body and the self. London: SAGE Publications ltd

Fisher,P. Bender,A. (1979) The Value of Food. Third edition. London: Oxford University Press.