The reason why I wanted to do a project on the tomato farm workers of Immokalee is because my mom worked there and with my first project I realized that not many people know about the work that goes into farm working and also the fact that most of southwest Florida consists of agriculture. I talked to my mom and she explained to me how people get paid.
$1.25 per bucket for grape Tomatoes
$0.70 per bucket for Roma Tomatoes
$0.60 per bucket for cherry Tomatoes
I then did the math and if you were to put this into perspective of what a regular 9-5 job day would be you would have to pick
50 buckets of grape tomatoes
87 buckets of Roma tomatoes
101 buckets of cherry tomatoes
a day in order to make a minimum wage page check. I wanted to put this into a visual display in order to for people to see what 80 buckets looked liked.
Thoughts I had when I decided I was going to look for 80 buckets
So I’ve been having a struggle trying to pinpoint exactly what it is that I want to talk about in my project. With the mapping project it was fairly easy for me because I didn’t have any expectation of the result. I just wanted to tell the personal stories of the people I grew up with. It was while I was editing the video that I realized that the topic was actually very sensitive. With this project I feel that I have a certain responsibility to say things the right way. I feel that if I mess up, it will be an injustice for the people that I am trying to represent. I think that’s why I decided to be very abstract about the way I wanted to display the topic. I had to sit down and really think hard and articulate what it was that I was thinking and what it was that I’m trying to say. This topic is important to me but it was hard to make it important for everyone else and I was afraid of falling short.
Some important issues about the migrant workers of Immokalee is that most of them live in poverty. I’ve often heard the working conditions being described as modern day slavery by the workers themselves. I myself had a hard time describing it that way because given the history of America I thought it would be inappropriate to compare their working conditions to slavery, even though there have been several cases of slavery that have been discovered in Immokalee. It’s hard to pinpoint harsh realities such as those especially when I grew up hearing about situations like that all the time. My parents and many people I knew participated in protests when I was a kid. I think because I grew up in this environment and I grew up hearing about these cases and seeing people work from sunrise to sunset it made me believe that it wasn’t that bad. Because if it was that bad we wouldn’t be living like that.
I then set out on my endevour to find 80 buckets
I did everything I could to find buckets without having to buy them. I went to the repurpose project, I got some from the dumpster. Kelsey gave me one, and I got some from other people as well. I went to every publix in town and asked the bakery if they had any and I was able to get 5 that way. Unfortunately they seemed to have run out or just have thrown them away when I would go ask. I also got some small ones from Karma Kreme but I ended up not using them because they weren't the right size and they smelled really bad. I still had to buy 15 of them but it didn't have to buy all of them which was a good thing. At first I wanted to have the buckets that they use on the farms which are large red buckets but they were expensive and hard to find. I went to a farm here in Gainesville and was able to get some from Jordan who runs the farm. All together I had about 60 buckets.
This is me going to Kelsey's house to clean them. Some of them were beyond cleaning and some of them were very stinky.
This is the farm that I visited. I recorded some audio that I wanted to use for my installation but I felt that the piece could do without it. The sounds are of the workers cutting out lettuce, they weren't working on tomatoes when I went. Audio1 Audio2
Here is a video of the farm
Installments
Here is the is the installment for critique 4/25
here is the second installment at the senior show 4/28. I added the red buckets that I got from the farm
I added pennies to the ground so that they were more noticeable and i had a bucket at the front filled with tomatoes as opposed as having the tomatoes at the bottom of the bucket. There was a slight smell of rotting tomatoes that surround the area but I think that only added to the piece :) If there was no one to pick them then they would actually rot.
The internet has open many ways of communication that were other wise impossible. The fact that you know the exact location of where your friends could be shows how accessible people want to be to the world and how there is a constant need and desire to be connected. The gaps within locations have become smaller as more and more technology becomes available. There is now an augmented reality device that you can strap to your phone and put it on your head and it allows you to watch a video from all directions. In a way the space and environment is being brought to you instead of you having to go there. I was at best buy the other day and in the cell phone department there was this augmented reality device (i don't know the name) but when the cell phone guy came over to demonstrate how it works he started playing a video from cirque du soleil. I could move my head and body and "move around" the stage. I have never seen cirque du soleil and have never experienced it personally, but this virtual reality device allowed me to experience it without even being there. Although it was cool and i would like to play around with it more it is kind of sad that the process of moving and traveling to a location is now being taken out of the experience.
The Phenomenology of Olfactory Perception: An Interview with Clara Ursitti
"She could accept it as an idea, and was enthusiastic about
it, but the physical reality of it was another matter."
I had a similar problem with my tomatoes. When I put them at the show there was an immediate wave of rotting that came across the room. It also reminds me of George's shirts and how we couldn't even be in the same room because the smell was so bad. When we go to the gallery we are expecting to have a certain experience and for the most part I would say that we expect that experience to be pleasant. When having such a gross smell in a gallery space, like the article says, it contaminates such a pristine cube. Smell, unlike any other artform, can not be seen nor touched. The only way to experience it, is to be there and smell it. Ursitti goes on to talk about how it is impossible to use words to describe a smell and I agree. A word like "pungent" does nothing to me when trying to think of what something smells like.
Toward a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption
Food is so often associated with the word "consumed." We see it as an item similar to natural resource such as fossil fuels or electricity. In a sense food is similar to that in the way that it gives us the nutrition we need. The food industry is also a business and like any other business it is marketed with the notion that we have to consume as much as we can. Coffee for example was once used as a stimulant to the nervous system and was associated with break time and relaxation. Now it is seen as a must have item of the day. People will stand in line for really long time in order to get this coffee that it is no longer relaxing.
The other Senses
Sight and sound are theoretical and smell and taste are practical. Taste and smell were described as primitive, infantile and animalistic, neurotic, and perverse. Even though most people would place sight at the top in ordering the list of the five senses smell and taste are the practical one because through these we can identify the unidentifiable. It is seen as infantile because for young children the way they identify something is through touch and taste and even though it is not acceptable to lick things as an adult for the most part that remains true as you age.
The Olfactory Dimension of Contemporary Art
Smells can be loaded with many layers of information. The simple fragrance of something often brings up a memory in people. The piece "Smell Chess" is particularly interesting to me. I don't really know how to play chess but I wonder how would a queen smell versus a knight or whatever figures they are. I also think back to the activity with the oils we did in class and remember getting really bad headache because of the smells. I don't know if it's because I can't smell well, but I imagine I would be really confused about what smell is what and the smells would begin to blend together until I couldn't tell them apart.
The article I chose was The Brilliant Red Salmon That's Worth the Splurge I bolded the words for flavor highlighted the words for texture
There was 5 texture words and 10 flavor words
At the Pike Place Market in Seattle, it’s the glistening, freshly caught salmon piled high that you’ll notice first. The fishmongers are jolly, and sales are brisk.
You might think all was well in the world of wild salmon, but you’d be wrong. It’s actually a wonder that wild salmon is even a possibility in the 21st century, considering the rampant overfishing that made Atlantic salmon, both here and in Europe, nearly extinct.
Photo
A spoonful of lightly whipped cream, seasoned in a savory way with salt, pepper, chives, lemon zest and a dab of mustard, is the sauce.
The only Atlantic salmon for sale now is farmed (and it is called “Atlantic” even if the fish is farmed in Norway or Chile). But inexpensive farmed salmon is a bland, sorry alternative to wild. Artificial dyes and pesticides are often used, and the farms pose environmental hazards.
Pacific wild salmon has survived despite great odds, due mostly to careful, often extreme management. Concerted efforts by conservationists have averted its total demise.
When wild Pacific salmon season opens in late spring along the West Coast, from Alaska all the way down to San Diego, there is reason to celebrate. The year’s first wild salmon, whether king (also called chinook) or sockeye, has incredibly brilliant red flesh; an exquisite, sweet, mild flavor, and a tender velvetlike texture. Fortunately, there is hope for the wild salmon that inhabit Bristol Bay, a relatively pristine fishery off Alaska that so far has remained unharmed and is well managed, both by the federal government and by the indigenous people who depend on salmon for physical and spiritual nourishment.
Photo
Cooking the fish is simple: just a few minutes in butter and it’s done.CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times
I bought a beautiful piece of king salmon the other day. It wasn’t cheap at $40 a pound, but it was enough to make four diners extremely happy, and there were no complaints about the four-ounce portion — only moans of pleasure. I let the thin slices cook gently in butter, making sure they were just done, which took no more than four minutes.
Playing to the Senses: Food as a Performance Medium
I agree that food can be a performative art piece. There goes so much into the process of making food that it will never not be a performance. I don't like cooking and when I do I feel like the process drained me of everything I had. According to this article a performance has to do, behave, and show. Preparing food does all of those things especially when you decide in which setting you want to show it. Most of the time you display food in a restaurant setting but if you choose to display it as art the context changes it and makes it art. Food also appeals to many senses aside from the obvious taste. You can feel the food being cooked especially when it involves onions and when it's on the heat of the stove. You can hear it being prepared for example when you pour something over the oil. I think all of these aspects can make it an art piece.
Introduction: The Food Issue
This article also talks about food as if it were art and argues that it can be. It starts off talking about the idea that most people are now trying to eat organic food over processed food. I think after seeing Our Daily Bread I want to eat more organic food as well. It talks about works of art that featured food in the past such as Warhol's Campbell's soup cans and Laura Parker's Taste of place. I think by making art out of food helps the viewer/consumer think more about the process and the work that goes into making food and preparing and what it means for us to live in a society where it is so readily available.
Farm Fresh Art: Food, Art, Politics, and the Blossoming of Social Practice
Artists are now trying to bring more awareness to the way that food is produced and the problems with that. Most of the article consists of artists and their work with food. One of my favorites was Taste of place. It is about the idea that the soil from different parts of the world provide a specific taste to the food that is grown there. I think this is true. I think of the cactus in the back of my mom's house for some reason. I think that it reacts to what happens to the soil and it therefore tastes different every time i eat it. This is the same type of cactus that we saw at University Gardens. I feel that when ever it rains it tastes different than if they were cut on a day it didn't rain.
Serving, Cooking, Giving it Away: Food Art, and the Places in Between
"And some may have wondered: were they there to eat or to see artwork? Both" I think the reason this is confusing is because we don't think about food as much as we think about art. Food is an essential part of our lives but it often goes overlooked. By placing it in the context of a gallery all of a sudden we think about it on the same level and look for meaning behind the idea of food. A lot of what these artists are doing many other non-artist people can do as well, such as gathering food and donating it to people who don't have any like Jay Dion. Like I said before giving food and performances such as these the title of art makes people think about these things on a deeper level.
Interview with Terri Cohn
In the interview Terri Cohn talks about the someone who tracked down the place where bananas are grown just off of the number on the stickers. It's interesting to me how there is so much information on a banana or any other fruit for that matter but no one will ever know about it because people don't think about where it came from.
I've never really thought about fermentation, actually I've never really thought about food in the sense of making it. I rarely cook so I don't know much what it means to cook. When I do cook I usually never follow the recipe word for word. I do a lot of eyeballing and a lot of replacing ingredients. My roommate loves to cook and whenever I do that it drives her crazy because she says I'm not respecting the food as it was originally intended to have been made. When thinking about fermentation, I feel like there has to be a strict process to it because of the bacteria. It was interesting listening to Katz fermentation. He sounds very excited and I still don't really understand it, especially when he is explaining the generation of yogurt. I don't think that I will ever really be interested in fermentation.
I have actually seen this documentary before in high school when my dad tried to convince me to be vegetarian. I remember that he couldn't sit through the whole thing and he didn't eat any meat for about two weeks telling everyone that he was no longer eating meat ever again. Like I said it was only for two weeks but I do remember it made a great impact on him. I myself have never been much of a meat eater and it was two years ago when I decided I wouldn't eat red meat, (chicken is just too good to give up but maybe one day i'll completely transition). My grandfather actually used to work at a pig or cow slaughterhouse (can't remember) and he described to me the way in which they would kill the animals and I remember thinking that was so inhumane. I personally think that the environment in which these animals are slaughtered is so stressful and some of that adrenaline and fear stays within the animal even after they die and I don't think we think of that when we eat them. People in my family have always worked in agriculture so thinking about where my fruit comes from paints an immediate picture in my mind but as I realized with my projects in this class not many people know where vegetables or fruits come from or how they end up on our dinner tables. Our daily bread makes us think of where our food comes from and the process it goes through to be on the shelves for us to casually just pick it up on a whim. It's sad but like everything that is mass produced it has to be done in a factory/ assembly line fashion in order to meet the demand.
introduction: "Food is on our collective mind. We are concerned with its production, charmed by its producers, and taken with its presentation." In our day and age, food is not just something used for sustainability– it in itself is a complete experience. Almost all social interactions I have on a daily basis, incorporate food somehow. It's a easy common ground for people, and an entertaining distraction from those of us who detest simple conversations, with nothing else to offer besides another's company. People actually share the fact that they're eating something, as if we didn't know it already. I like the infusion of old and new that the article sheds light on : that sense of as technology continues to advance, our food practices turn to a simpler time, of cropping and embracing a backwards backyard mode of food production. It's also interesting to note that as food becomes more and more popular for some reason, as this super-millennial, always ready photo-op, artists have begun incorporating the subject as a medium in their practices and works. "Local artists and chefs, respectively rooted in traditions of conceptual art and culinary experimentation, are increasingly collaborating to create meals, projects, and food-art extravaganzas, which occupy an undefined region between art making and cooking."
serving, cooking, giving it away: chefs and artists tell why they have turned to food and each other. This popup restaurant, OPENwater, seemed like a scene from Portlandia, where the all too caring locals, truly want to be in touch with their food, and its origin, to make sure no fowl foul play is going on. I particularly love the scene that was described to us on the look and feel of the space: the Delta smelt, and the abundance of water that was sourced at stations, expect for one area, completely abandoned, to hone in the idea of life unable to exist without water. I also like the line between restaurant and exhibit/museum that was questioned and asked. Both spaces are kind of alike in clientele: both service wanderers and admirers; those who happen to stumble upon them, and those die-hards that will follow them wherever they go. "The border between art and food is completely blurred," – Jerome Waag. "I think that’s what we want—for artists to have a strong and present voice as people who shape things. It seems to me that the most important thing that needs shaping is our everyday lives. Food is at the center of those lives, whether we like it or not."
farm fresh art :
artist, curator, and art historian Liena Vayzman investigates artists' recent projects involving gardening and food. The initial exercise that Vayzman did, demonstrated not only the power of food for our immediate senses, but its reflected nature that placates to our nostalgia. I believe food's popularity is based around this ideal, how it facilitates an immediate, and tangible surge into dialogue and community. It creates a landscape for us to critically look at the food we grow, eat, and associate with socially and culturally, and even personally. I also think society's increasing attention to food relates to their eagerness to learn in partake in the politics of food production and its distribution. interview with Terri Cohn: art historian and writer Cohn reflect on artworks from the past 50 years Cohn became interested in food in the 90's, when her interest with Conceptual Art began as well. Due to interviews with Tom Marioni and his beer pieces, she found how easily beer loosens you up. Thus, how social food and drink make interactions, and how that was accumulating an art form. From a historical perspective, food has a way of representing social and cultural capital, as seen in artist Shelley Sacks's Exchange Values (1992), where ideas on labor, and the chain of production were also explored. To Cohn, the purpose of working with food is in most cases to create a sense of community, to socialize and interact with others. "Food has always existed as a metaphor for conceptually-based artists; it just started to snowball in since 2000."
-leaves the reader to imagine what all of these acids smell
like, in what ratios
-seems less intimate in a way
Fragrance: The Odor
of Sanctity by Constance Classen
-The fact that prayers were viewed as incense (and another
divine aspect the perfume) is very interesting; also ties into what I
researched about incense. However, I thought they were talking about the visual
effect of smoke, not its scent.
-The way in which odor was viewed as an “inner
truth” and internal signifier of life that becomes external and perceptible is
really interesting. Moreover, the fact that they were viewed as “ethereal” and
“[defining] our ability to define them” seems to create an image of an elusive
form of knowledge.
The Olfactory Dimension of Contemporary Art by Evi
Papadopoulou
-Scent’s ability to move and its inability or the fact that
it’s unwilling to be fixed in one spot is interesting; scent marks zones very
loosely.
-In regards to the way in which F.T Marinetti was prodded by
the scent of “oil and gasoline spilled in a car accident” to create the
Futurism movement, it seems as if the smell conjured thoughts of an aesthetic,
which is very interesting
-The fact that smell was frequently used in installations
makes sense; it can create an environment in a large space/physical space
-Oswaldo Macia’s Ten notes for a human symphony seems to create narratives around
these smells
-The fact that the senses are organized in a hierarchy that
changes slightly, ,with vision always at the top, is similar to a topic I have
read about in my Mediterranean Art Exchange class; sight was viewed as
knowledge.
-Distance as logic is interesting; does that mean that
closeness is emotional/subjective?
-How can there be such a hierarchy when all of these senses
create the human experience?
-The way in which the senses are seen as “seductive,”
requiring one “get close to experience them,” is interesting
-The way in which Sanjit Sethi’s Kuni Wada Bakery Remembrance uses scent as a way to draw people
into a piece is interesting
The Phenomenology of Olfactory Perception by Clara Ursitti
-The way in which Drobnick views smell as “something that
contaminates the pristine white cube with evidence of the body social—the
visceral” seems to link up to aspects we have discussed in my Installation
class
-The view that scent is imbued with a “shelf life,” having a
“time-based” and “performative” aspect is interesting.
-The way in which Ursitti talks of the
importance of experiencing artworks in person rather than through mediated
forms reminds me of what an instructor I have spoken with said about viewing
Ross Bleckner’s paintings in museums; it also reminds me of the way in which I
enjoy getting very close to artworks
Here are some of the interview questions. I probably asked some that are not on this list but here is the list I had on me for both interviews.
Ms. Feagin
1)How important is food traditions for your family?
2)Do you think that some of the recipes and foods you prepare stem from your ancestors?
3)How do the foods that we eat as black Americans stem from African slave history?
4)As far as slavery is concerned what kinds of foods were afforded to those people.
5)What traditions of slave cooking do we still practice if any?
6)Why do you think that these foods are a delicacy now? (chitterlings, ox tail, and other meats that are not main cuts of the animal.)
7)Do you still cook like your parents?
Mr. Omar
1)How does your culture tie you to the food of this restaurant?
2) How important is the tradition of food for you, when it comes to your restaurants?
3) Did you put a lot of thought into the plating the food?
4) The recipes for your southern food stem from where or are there inspirations to the food.
5) Do you know the history of certain southern food traditions?
6) You are Caribbean but you trace the foods from southern charm from the southern roots of America. Would you happen to know anything about what the slaves would eat and do you think this food stems from those traditions
So I told you that Ms. Shirly Tarver Feagin was one of my teachers from high school. She was a science teacher but she was a spearheaded when it came to her pre-colligate group and the teaching of black history at my high school. every year she would have a soul food extravaganza and a black history program. the soul food jam would be entitled "why we eat what we eat"
I really think and know that she is the one who needs to be in my project. she would and actually did provide some excellent feedback and knowledge and made the documentary what is is.
we eventually met up at her house and got some interviews done. I wanted to see the food and get a better understanding first hand so We went to the local Winndixie supermarket. there we could really dig deep into what I wanted to discuss in my documentary about the food of my ancestors.
I had no luck with the head chef at embers wood grill in Gainesville. apparently he and his wife just had child so he was spending an extended period of time with his family. But I still had another option of restaurants to choose from.
So after weeks of trying to get in touch with people from different restaurants I finally got in touch with Omar's(owner of Reggae Shack Cafe and Southern Charm Kitchen) wife Arpita she is the owner of the new restaurant the twisted peacock. I was able to go in and record stuff and take interviews inside of Southern charm kitchen. I spent almost an entire day at southern charm. There I interview an african american family, a white couple, and a couple other customers who were there at the time.
I had me a great lunch or macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and BBQ goat. It was very delicious. I got to even record in the kitchen.
On a separate day I was able to have a sit down conversation/interview with the owner of Southern char, kitchen. He answered all of my questions and helped me decide what to bring in for the class for the project documentary installation.
This is Omar and Arpita (Happy Couple) Owns 3 restaurants in Gainesville florida.
The artist that I want to summarize in the article is New York based artist Molly Dilworth.
Her works called satellite paintings is very cool. she paints large painting on rooftops and the only way that you can see these paintings if from the view of a satellite.
"Physical Painting for digital space"
very true to what she does. because the paintings are so very large that the only place that you can see them are on the internet through at satellite image.
I also like how they compare that to what Target did to one of their buildings where they painted their logo on the top of their building in order for when you look at the building in google maps you will defiantly see the building because of the distinctive logo.
