Ambience

This week I will talk about the ambience of an activity. "Ambience applies to the atmosphere of the surroundings, their mood, or tone (Reed & Sanderson, 1999, p. 160)." This can be related to occupations of labour, as labour is the essence of, and creates the ambience of labour activities. The nature of labour is to repeat things, to make or do things purely to consume or use them. My cooking  is a labour occupation, and the ambience of the activity is seen in the fact that I repeat it every day, the room and equipment is set up to reflect the repetitive nature of the activity; things are put back in the same place for easy access next time, plates are used knowing they will be used again and again, food is restocked in anticipation of the next cooking session. 


The environment is often the same when I cook, I come back to the same place to cook, see the same people, make similar foods that meet my requirements (yummy, cheap, as healthy as possible given the previous two points!), all of which reflect the reflect nature of cooking. I suppose upon reflection I can see the ambience created by the nature of how I cook. I was cooking pasta the other day and, was able to reflect on how often I make that meal. I have recently learnt how to make my own pasta sauces, which is great! I'm adding mushroom and courgettes and peppers, and will repeat and expand on this in this future. I was able to think back on my days at university, and pasta has been the standard fallback option when things are tight. Through the repetition of labour I have maintained my connection with this and other common foods, and the ambience created by and within these meals (and cooking as a whole) makes cooking enjoyable to me.


References


Reed, K. L. & Sanderson, S. N. (1999). Concepts of occupational therapy. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins: Baltimore.