Affordances

Week 37

Affordance is an outcome of an activity. It’s what ordinary activities bring about. Under affordances there are three topics i am going to look into in relation to affordance. These are communication (what does this bring about?), connections (how one activity leads itself to another. This is describing the story and what happened next), good and bad aspects- moral judgement.

Firstly i think i will tell you all a wee story about the last time i cooked and then i will clearly link the main aspects of this story into those three heading under affordances. Hopefully that will therefore make a whole lot of sense to you and help me actually understand what’s going on here too!

Story

As i was grabbing the chicken out of the freezer i was thinking of all the things i will have to do in order to create eatable curry which was the plan for tonight’s tea. I find cooking a long and tiring process so after i put the chicken in the microwave i ran over to the stereo to blast the sounds to try and get rid of my negative thoughts around the task in hand. So off i went chopping to the beat of those sounds, until by flatmates plonked themselves at the kitchen table which this therefore lead to a whole lot of chatting while i was preparing. This chatting sure lead to a whole lot of laughing, bantering and sharing as it always does in our chatty wee flat. Well you could put it down to 5 girls who love to TALK as we sure do! While i was about to put the rice on i had a flashback to last time i had cooked rice and lets just say that the white rice and grown some black freckles. This mistake has definitely made me aware for this time. As people always say trial and error is the best way to learn. Early that day i had rang mum to get her advice on how to cook it. However i was still uneasy about cooking it so i asked the flatmates for some input. By asking them i have discovered just how many different ways in which there is to cook rice. Every one of my flatmates had a different way or variation. Crazy huh! This therefore lead to a massive teaching session, in which every flatmate got the chance to explain and show how they would cook the rice. The way in which everyone cooked the rice was the way in which they had grown up having seen it or being taught it by family members. After all the knowledge and information getting thrown around the room stopped i decided to cook the rice the way in which my mother did it, as i have seen it done and know it does work! Before i new it dinner was nearly ready to be served up. I was shocked at how quick time and gone as i was thinking it would drain on forever. I realised that the time passed to quickly due to the social interaction of be asking for opinions and information from the flatmates, plus all the singing along to the radio as well. Setting the table i began to think what wonderfully weird conversation will get brought up while we are eating as something always pops up that we tend to argue and put our viewpoints forward. As we sat down the compliments of the curry were coming from all directions! Fantastic i had managed to cook the chicken and have all white rice and it wasn’t too gluggy! Wahoo success!

Through telling you this story i am able to unpin alot about affordance.

Communication

Through the cooking of this meal, it brought about a lot of things. Communication on this particular night was huge. Everybody just wanted to chat! We laughed at each other-about stories one another told, when one of my flatmates dropped the rice and at memories we have shared before. We joked with one another and  gave advise to each other when talking about the cooking of the rice and how we have been taught, what was the ‘norm’ way for our families to that activity. There was plenty of time to slip in a little bit of gossip as girls always need to do and we shared a whole tone of stories. We taught each other and learned copious amounts of knowledge around the way in which to cook rice.

"In any home, the kitchen is often the place where friends and family congregate. Sure, 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"  (De Lore & Brooke-White, 2000).

Connections

When thinking about this activity it leads itself to many things. The major thing it lead to was teaching and learning. Through the flat coming together and teaching each other different wasy of eating rice and learning how my flatmates came about cooking it that way gave as a greater understanding into each other and provided our knowledge base to expand. It lead to building memories as that was a significant night, all of the girls huddled in the kitchen talking about rice. It provided the swapping of information about the different methods of cooking rice and i used trial and error as the first time i had cooked rice i failed miserably and then through trying and asking i achieved success!

Moral Properties

This evening cooking provided everyone to share a part of themselves. This was evident when we all shared memories and ways in which to cook rice. This provided reward and allowed each other to express ourselves. It provided a way to honour people as my flatmate was taught how to cook the rice by her grandmother who had recently passed away. The moral properties of this story were positive, and I am struggling to find any bad aspects.

Cooking can bring about many things, affording and leading itself. This quote by Nigella Lawson (2004) describes wonderfully just how cooking lends itself.

"Cooking has many functions, and only one of them is about feeding people. When we go into a kitchen, indeed when we even just think about going into a kitchen, we are both creating and responding to an idea we hold about ourselves, about what kind of person we are or wish to be. How we eat and what we eat lies at the heart of who we are as – Individuals, families, communities". (Lawson, 2004. p.7).

References

De Lore, C., & Brooke-White, J. (2000). Every kitchen tells a story. New Zealand: Harper Collins Publishers Limited.

Lawson, N. (2004). Feast: Food to celebrate life. England: Hyperion.