Affordances

In the last tutorial, we took a look at affordances - how our chosen activity affords certain things, leads to other things happening (both positive and negative). We looked at this under the headings of: Communication, Connections (action properties, what's the story), and Good and Bad Aspects (moral properties).


By communication we mean how the given occupation allows us to comminucate with others. Visser (1991) believes that we use "..eating as a medium for social relationships." If I relate this to my cooking experience, I can see that the end product of the cooking allows me to communicate with others while eating, as well as while cooking. I can cook with people, argue or discuss the best way to cook things. I can advise or be advised about how to best make a soup, for example. I can laugh about the mistakes I have made. The other day while making soup I forgot to adjust the recipe to suit a smaller pot, used heaps of barley and basically ended up making a stew! I had a bit of a laugh about this with my girlfriend. While I am cooking I can talk to others, and cooking or being in the kitchen affords the opportunity to have a conversation with people.


By connections, we mean what our occupations lend themselves to, what they may encourage, or lead to us doing. When I cook It can lead to many things. The obvious one is eating, which then itself leads to talking and washing up. One instance I can remember during the week was when my sister came around to try my soup for lunch. She came round and I ended up making plenty so my flatmates had some too, we all sat around and ate and talked and watched TV, and afterwards washed dishes and put everything away. The simple act of cooking in this instance has lead to a number of different things occurring. Within the communication that occurs it can lead to other more abstract notions, for example it can lead to me being a teacher, or a learner for that matter.


By the good and bad aspects, we are talking about what may come of the activity, how someone views things that occurs from the activity to be positive or negative. Cooking for me is a very authentic activity. I find it hard to explain this but I guess I mean that it is something people have always done, and always will do. It contains tradition and custom and I think It is important to maintain this. It differs from something like playing Xbox in that Xbox is made only for the moments when you are playing, you don't have a connection to the way things used to be done, or have to make something from scratch. I guess when I look at cooking I have the notion that the best way to cook is from scratch. No packets, no pre-made sauces, nothing. I feel a sense of connection with a meal when I make it from the beginning, without "just add' products. It doesn't feel quite right to me when I have to do this. Unfortunately due to the cost of food these days it is cheaper to buy these things. Maybe when I have more money I'll be able to cook how I really want to cook.


References
Visser, M. (1991). The Rituals of Dinner. Penguin Books. New York.