ARTS2128 final assignment

1. FEEDING
FEELINGS
a guide to conversation and connection
through your taste buds

2. feelings
feeding
Mission
At Feeding Feelings, we believe that food has incredible
power in creating communities, building relationships,
expressing the self and comforting the soul.
The world is full of inequalities, injustices and differences.
We want people to have open conversations about some of
these things - over a homecooked meal.
Our mission is to combine art, activism and education to
create unique projects that bring people together through
the power of food.
This edition of Feeding Feelings addresses food waste, trade
ethics, and cultural differences around food. It consists of
3 recipes and activities. Go on, try this with a stranger and
discover something new.

3. contents
feeding
Table of Contents: The Project
How-To: Your Guide to Using the Book
Conversation Starters
Recipes:
Quinoa Salad
Hearty Lasagna
Decadent Tiramisu
Conclusion
Notes/Research
References

4. how-to
feeding
Your Guide to Using this Book
1. Pair up.
2. Choose a recipe.
3. Ask each other questions from the “feeding conversations”
pages, ideally in order that they are presented.
4. Answer truthfully. Do not hold back.
5. Plate your dish.
6. Sit.
7. Eat.
8. Chat.
9. Connect.

5. Describe yourself in 5
words.
If you could travel
anywhere in the world,
where would it be?
What is your favourite
childhood memory?
What is your biggest
fear?
What is the most
beautiful thing you
have ever seen?
What is your favourite
family tradition?
conversations
feeding
Who is the one person
you trust most?
Is it possible to be too
compassionate? Why
or why not?
Finish this sentence:
“I wish the world...”
Describe the other
person in 5 words.
What does it mean to
be brave?
Do you think it is
possible to change
one’s self? How have
you changed over the
years?
conversations
feeding
Segment by Elizabeth Chua

6. QUINOA
SALAD
INGREDIENTS
For the quinoa:
1.5kg RSPCA approved whole chicken
1/2 cup quinoa, sourced from
Ecuador, Colombia or Argentina
400g can lentils from West Asia
2 roma tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1/2 cup mint leaves
2 tbsp lemon juice
200g light Greek-style yoghurt
1 tbsp tahini
Pinch of ground paprika
Lemon wedges, to serve
STEPS
1. Preheat oven to 150°C and contribute to gas and energy emissions in the
world. To make the chermoula, process the onion, chilli, chopped coriander,
parsley, lemon juice, garlic, paprika, cumin, ground coriander and turmeric
in a food processor until smooth. Season.
2. Place the raw chicken, breast-side down, on a clean work surface. Use
kitchen scissors to cut along each side of the backbone to remove. Discard
of the rest, you don’t want to use every ingredient or that would be too
resourceful.
3. Turn the chicken breast-side up. Use the palm of your hand to push the
breast down to flatten. Tuck the wings under the breast bone. Place in a
roasting pan. Pour over the chermoula, spreading to evenly coat. Cover with
foil. Roast for 1 1/2 hours. Uncover and roast for a further 30 mins or until
golden brown and cooked through. Use a sharp knife to carefully cut into
pieces.
4. Meanwhile, place the fairtrade quinoa and 1 cup water in a medium
saucepan. Bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and cook,
covered, for 15 mins or until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is tender. Set
aside to cool completely.
5. Combine the quinoa, lentils, tomato, coriander and mint in a large bowl.
Drizzle with half the lemon juice and toss to combine.
6. Combine the yoghurt, tahini and remaining lemon juice in a small bowl.
Season. Sprinkle with paprika.
7. Divide the quinoa salad and chicken among serving plates equally. Serve
with the tahini yoghurt and lemon wedges.
For the chermoula:
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1 long green chilli, seeded, finely
chopped
2 tbsp coriander, finely chopped
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp ground paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
By 2030, global food demand is expected to rise by 35%. 75% of the world’s food is generated from only 12 plants and 5 animal species.
Kale is probably not one of them.
by Eliza Barnes

7. HEARTY
LASAGNA
Italy’s tomato farming trade consists of 80% migrant workers, many of which are exploited
and underpayed in horrifying working conditions.
INGREDIENTS
2 tsp olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
600g lean, free range, grass fed, beef mince
737g bottle local tomato pasta sauce
1/2 cup red wine
1 tsp CSR caster sugar
250g packet dried lasagne pasta sheets
2 cups thickened cream
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
STEPS
1. Heat oil in a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and
garlic. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until onion is tender. Stuff mince into
pan tightly to resemble its former life. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon
to break up mince, for 8 minutes or until browned.
2. Add sauce, wine and CSR sugar, only using brands you trust. Season
with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer,
uncovered, for 40 minutes or until sauce has thickened. Remove from heat.
3. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Lightly grease a 7cm-deep, 25cm
square base baking dish.
4. Spoon 1/2 cup mince mixture over base of dish. Arrange one quarter of
the pasta sheets over the meat mixture, breaking the sheets like how food
corporations break rules, to fit.
5. Spoon one-third of the remaining mince mixture over pasta. Drizzle with
one-quarter of the cream. Sprinkle with one-quarter of the cheddar cheese.
Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining pasta sheets, cream and cheddar
cheese. Sprinkle with parmesan. Cover loosely with foil.
6. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil. Bake for 15 minutes or until pasta is
tender and cheese golden. Stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Wilmar International, the owner of CSR Sugar, has been linked to severe deforestation in
Indonesia, destroying the environment and villages for palm oil.
Growth hormones are added to 40% of Australia’s cattle, both grass and grain fed, and these
hormones are proved to enter the body once consumed.
by Eliza Priest

8. DECADENT
TIRAMISU
Your chocolate likely came from one of the more than 15,000 child slaves
working on cacao farms in West Africa.
Coffee is tied to a long history of colonialism and slavery.
Coffee cultivators face discrimination against women, unsanitary living environments,
child labor, and a lack health and safety initiatives and access to education.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups strong black coffee, using fairtrade beans from Guatemala
1/2 cup marsala
3 free-range eggs, separated
1/3 cup caster sugar
250g mascarpone
300ml thickened cream, lightly whipped
1 large packet of sponge finger biscuits
Fairtrade organic cocoa powder for dusting
STEPS
1. Pour coffee and marsala into a shallow dish. Set aside.
2. Beat free-range egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl, the same way chickens
are mistreated in captivity, with electric beaters until pale and thick. Add the
mascarpone and whipped cream, mixing gently until just combined.
3. Beat free-range egg whites in a medium bowl with electric beaters until
soft peaks form. Using a large metal spoon, gently fold egg whites into the
mascarpone mixture.
4. Dip enough biscuits into the coffee mixture to cover the base of a 19cm
square ceramic dish. Cover the biscuits with one-third of the mascarpone
mixture.
5. Repeat Step 4 twice, creating three layers of biscuit and mascarpone,
ending with the cream.
6. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
7. Dust generously with fairtrade organic cocoa powder and serve chilled.
Note: Marsala can be replaced with orange juice if preferred.
“Free-range” chickens aren’t as “free” as they are marketed to be, often subjected to
the same crowded sheds and cruel debeaking practices as caged hens.
by Jiayu Lu & Elizabeth Chua

9. feelings
feeding
Concluding the Project
We hope that the time you spent making those recipes has
helped turn a stranger into a friend. Even though this is it
for the project, we encourage that the both of you sit down
and continue your conversations.
This is only the first edition of Feeding Feelings, so do
look out for a new edition every quarter! We will never run
out of topics to discuss and you will never run out of new
people to meet and connect with.
Until next time!
contents
feeding
Table of Contents: The Research
Starters
Gendered Performativity and Space
1. Feminism soup
2. Cooking shows
Mains
Conversations and Irresistible Images
1. Your Name Is...
2. Heineken advertisement
3. Conversation in performance
4. Conversation starters
5. Dinner table conversations
Dessert
Food and Consumerism
1. Comfort food
2. Food and art
3. Starbucks around the world
4. Food and the environment
5. Leo Burtin and Julia Turshen

10. GENDERED PERFORMATIVITY
AND SPACE
Starters

11. slow cooker
“The Soup” started out as an idea to create a collaborative performance
acknowledging the audience’s role in the artwork (Boyle & Bogad 2015). In
our early stages of brainstorming, Feeding Feelings had the idea of going
around campus with a pot and asking people what ingredients they would
put into a “sex soup” to understand more about everyone’s ideas around
sex and gender. We had planned for the group to then create a soup
based on these “ingredients” and serve it to our audience.
Prielle and Elizabeth conducted “The Feminist Soup” experiment on
campus, asking students, staff and construction workers what ingredients
they believed to make up feminism. A majority of responses were along
the lines of ‘Equality’, ‘Women’, ‘Equal rights’. It made us realise that many
people do not actually have strong or radical views on the topic as we had
expected.
FEMINIST SOUP
While the experiment did not meet our expectations, we did draw some
interesting observations. The male participants were hesitant, delayed,
confused and uncomfortable when writing their response, while our female
participants didn’t hesitate and required a few seconds to respond. Perhaps
the word itself is too gendered, constructed according to the sex gender
system, so women feel more comfortable when encountering it than men
are (De Lauretis 1987). The results might have also varied if Prielle and
Elizabeth were male.
“The Feminist Soup” experiment gave us valuable insight on the
constructed understandings around a single word and how the artwork
might incidentally be supporting these constructed meanings and ideas.
Following this experiment, we decided to explore other ideas for our
final project. Feeding Feelings realised the importance of not necessarily
limiting our focus on one end of
the gender spectrum but look
at gender as a construct and
facilitate open conversations
around it.
Even though our biases will
inadvertently be brought into
our final work, we want to
as much as possible have a
conversation around a “sex
gendered system” rather than
perpetuate it (De Lauretis 1987,
p. 5).
Segment by Prielle Betito

12. Martha Rosler’s Semiotics of the
Kitchen (1975) is a parody-style
performance which criticises
the expectations of women. In
the video, Rosler names and
demonstrates the use of kitchen
tools with a deadpan look on her
face, emotionless and robotic yet
also angry and frustrated in the
way she handles the kitchen tools
andequipment.Thisperformance
is uncomfortable to watch, for it is not the image of the happy housewife
you are used to seeing on TV. It is interesting that Rosler presents the
performance through video - it is meant to be seen through a screen, like a
cooking show. This led me to think about how the same image of the happy
housewife is still portrayed on the Food Network today, and is drastically
different from how male chefs like Gordon Ramsay are portrayed. The way
they act, the camera work, the pacing and the kitchen ‘set’ are all done
differently. The energy from female chefs are usually calm and nurturing
while that of male chefs are usually quick and snappy.
Martha Stewart vs Jamie Oliver:
The energy exuded from these two chefs in
their cooking shows are clearly different.
Beyond Martha Stewart
My research on Martha Rosler
reminded me of Lilly Singh’s
How To Make A Sandwich.
Singh’s performance is also
styled like a cooking show,
created as a video to be seen
online. The video is a direct
confrontation to the commonly
used “make me a sandwich”
comment towards women - one
that is degrading, sexist, and
perpetuates traditional roles
of women that Rosler critiqued
over forty years ago. Singh is also confrontational but in a different way
than Rosler. Her approach is through comedy, which may not be regarded
as ‘art’ by many. Instead, it could be classified as ‘low brow’ art. Singh
is very direct and clear in her performance while Rosler is a little more
abstract. That being said, it is not any less of a form of activism as they
both discuss and bring up the same important arguments.
Rosler and Singh knowingly perform gender - this consciousness is very clear
in both their performances. As these performances are not aligned with
social expectations of the happy housewife merrily preparing dinner for her
family, it becomes clear to the audience that they are being confrontational
about something. In this case, it is the dated societal standards for women,
specifically their relationship with food and how they should behave in the
kitchen.
Segment by Elizabeth Chua
COOKING SHOWS:

13. The kitchen is also a gendered space, often associated with women and
housewives though that has changed quite a bit. Ironically, a Google search
of ‘world’s top chefs’ will bring you stunning results of, you guessed it, all
men. Both Rosler and Singh performances will change drastically if they
took place anywhere else because of the performer’s own relationship with
the space and the message they want to send - “the gendered body acts
its part in a culturally restricted corporeal space and enacts interpretations
within the confines of already existing directives.” (Butler, 1998 p. 526). The
audience’s associations with the space plays a part as well, as people would
naturally associate the kitchen with women, their mothers, themselves, a
space of nurturing, comfort, desire - food is a basic need that everyone
relates to and has strong feelings about.
“Gender reality is performative which means, quite simply, that it is real only
to the extent that it is performed ... gender itself is something prior to the
various acts, postures, and gestures by which it is dramatized and known”
Judith Butler, p. 527-528
“The distinction between expression and performativeness is quite crucial, for
if gender attributes and acts … are performative, then there is no preexisting
identity by which an act or attribute might be measured; there would be no
true or false, real or distorted acts of gender”
Judith Butler, p. 528
the Katering Show
Segment by Eliza Barnes
My research on The Katering Show came very early on in the process as
gender and using comedy as a source of ‘connecting’ to an audience is
an effective tool to discuss ‘taboo’ or ‘non dinner table’ discussions. The
Katering Show is about two women, Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan
who brand themselves around a “journey of a food intolerant and an
intolerable foodie” where they discuss the latest food trends and any topics
revolving around food in their hour segments. It brings to light food waste,
food consumption and expectations of diets especially with women. They
confront various topics and dedicate an episode to this whilst standing in
a kitchen and “making” a full recipe that they comment on.
What I find useful about this form of social activism is that they use a
commercial and attractive way of addressing issues like eating disorders
and food waste in a manner that is approachable and communicative to a
large amount of people. Therefore, the subliminal message of discussing
these topics perhaps in the lounge room of a viewer’s home doesn’t seem
that daunting. It is the subtlety in how powerful comedic performance is
in raising topics that they protest, proving that sometimes, activism and
protest can be a bit of a laugh.

14. (Bobby Baker)
Segment by Jiayu Lu
Bobby Baker is a performance artist in London and she makes one of her
performances ‘Mad Gyms and Kitchens’ through multimedia, a unique
medium which attracts many people. The idea of the show is based upon
people’s cooking experiences in everyday life. It can also be defined as a
body of the work that is engaged with the audience as audience interaction
is a large part of the show. The show aims to encourage people who may
be feeling down or dealing with mental issues such as depression, stigma
and isolation to take a brave step forward and fight mental illness with
confident.
Day 165: My Psychotherapist
Bobby Baker
‘Mad Gyms and Kitchens’ demonstrates the great power of women in
relation to their concerns and treatment of mental distress. The show mainly
uses the tools such as tables, chairs, and bags which can be easily found in
the kitchen in daily life. By doing this, Baker wants to create an environment
where people feel comfortable in, a space driven by community spirit that
encourages conversations and interactions.
Apart from live performance with an audience, Baker‘s organisation,
Daily Life Ltd., also has a website which serves as an online space that
showcases disability arts. This website shows us that sometimes, images
are more effective than the words to convey people’s thoughts. Baker’s
visual journal entry, My Psychotherapist (left) shows a woman with blue
clothes, orange tongue, red and green nails of the right and left hand
holding a knife as if killing the invisible mental disease. It is only one of the
images in Baker’s diaries vividly recording how she gradually recovers from
her mental hurdles.
“Prepare to be surprised and delighted, moved and enlightened as
Bobby demonstrates how she achieves that ultimate ‘well-being’ factor.
From working out to chilling out, via the kitchen sink, Bobby’s wellness
roadshow investigates how to get better at feeling better-cup of tea
included.”
Daily Life Ltd.

15. CONVERSATIONS AND
IRRESISTIBLE IMAGES
Mains

16. “Your Name Is...”
Segment by Eliza Priest
When attempting to solve the issue of creating comfortable conversation,
we discovered a video by SoulPancake on Youtube (Is “Fifty Shades of
Grey” Your Answer? REALLY? | Tell My Story, Blind Date, 2017). In this
video, two strangers are sat across from one another and are told to answer
certain questions about the other person. In following the script, the onus
of creating conversation is taken off participants and instead placed on the
script. It provides a comfortable framework for the flow of conversation and
invites the participants to actively get to know one another. The original
script read as follows:
Each one answered for the other and conversation built off the discovery
of personal biases when meeting a stranger. Following the questions, the
participants were then asked if they’d like to keep talking or not. In most
cases, the answer is yes. Genuine human curiosity can be an amazing driver
towards forwarding conversation. Despite the fact that these pairings may
BASIC QUESTIONS
Your name is ______.
You are ___ years old.
For work, you are a _____.
Your cultural/ethnic background is ______.
INTERMEDIATE QUESTIONS
Your favourite book of all time is _______.
_____ would play you in a movie about your life.
Your celebrity crush is _____.
HEAVYWEIGHT QUESTIONS
Three things you fear most are ______.
When you feel fear, you react by _______.
You are/are not scared of dying.
BASIC QUESTIONS
Your name is ______.
You are ___ years old.
For work, you are a _____.
Your cultural/ethnic background is ______.
INTERMEDIATE QUESTIONS
Your favourite superhero is _______.
_____ would play you in a movie about your life.
Your celebrity crush is _____.
HEAVYWEIGHT QUESTIONS
If you could change one thing about the world it
would be ______.
You think activism is _______.
You are/are not a feminist.
have different fears or celebrity crushes, they are willing to move past them
in order to find a friend and expand their knowledge.
In our version of the script, we hoped to tie it more to the core concepts
of feminism and activism in general. By opening a dialogue with a clear
intent, we were curious as to whether conversation could build or would
stop. When discussing discursive issues such as feminism, the flow of
conversation can sometimes be jilted by the weight of the topic. We were
hoping this script may be a way to counteract that by introducing the
people to one another prior to establishing our motive. Our script was as
follows:
Prielle and Jiayu conducted this experiment with strangers and found from
their explorations that often the conversation would flow until the final
“heavyweight” questions. Being so upfront about our cause ended up
alienating the strangers we engaged with. However, the opening questions
stood as an effective opener to conversation and established a rapport that
could’ve been built on with modified heavyweight questions. Overall, the
experiment opened us up to the subtlety necessary for discussing these
topics and narrowed our focus back to food as a mode of connection,
rather than just simply conversation.

17. HEINEKEN AD
From the topic of creating a conversation, our group decided to look into
how conversations can be created. What bonds people? What gets people
talking? How can you talk about “challenging” topics at a dinner table
or with someone you do not know? We came across the Heineken ad
titled ‘Worlds Apart’ and were inspired by its ability to encapsulate what
putting two people into a room and bonding them through beer (their
product) can do to change individuals perspectives. It became evident that
this research was going to prop us with inspiration and an aid in what we
wanted to do as form of activism. I believe that this is where our approach
and “fire” came from in the latter weeks of forming our idea. We had
finally gained a grasp on how powerful our idea truly was and could be.
The question that the advertisement gives its audience at the end of the
video is “Is there more that unites us than divides us?”. This influenced
and supported our idea in creating an environment of conversation and
accepting individuals’ differences. With a similar idea of working with food
and bringing people together, new inspiration was sparked and we found
ourselves much further on track with our activism idea. This research was
a catalyst in our development, and it was at this point where we found our
mission statement and name, Feeding Feelings.
Segment by Eliza Barnes
Worlds Apart (2017), Heineken
IN
PERFORMANCE
conversation
Segment by Eliza Barnes
When we started working as a group and this idea of conversation in a
performative way came up, I was at a crossroads in how you could execute
that in an artistic way. As I was trying to look at new performances or
artistic expressions of activism I remembered a performance that I saw
in Collaborative Making, a course here at UNSW. The performance, Fairy
Bread, invited individuals around a table whilst the “actors” told stories
of their heritage, how it has affected them, and what it means to be
Australian. They did this whilst making fairy bread, a childhood treat that
includes white bread, butter and rainbow sprinkles. It ended with an open
invitation for people to talk about their past, present and future and begin
a discussion. What struck me about this performance was that the dense
implications about nationality and identity were masked and intertwined
with the performance’s orientation around a table and its task of making
fairy bread. I used this as a source of inspiration that I shared with the group
because of its connection to our discussion of food and conversation.
Ordinary Miracles, Fairy Bread
Photography by Paul Matthews

18. CONVERSATION
STARTERS Segment by Elizabeth Chua
Our discussions of women in the kitchen led us to think about the feeling
of getting together with people over a homecooked meal. Instead of
trying to confront gendered expectations, we wanted to explore what it
would mean to embrace the association of motherly love and nurturing
with homecooked food and the kitchen. This led us to think about what it
means to simply bond over a meal, be it with friends, family or complete
strangers. I began then to explore conversation starters and ways to bridge
the gap between people, which led me to The Family Dinner Project. This is
a movement that promotes family dinners not just for fun, but also because
they have been shown to improve aspects of an individual family member’s
lives, such as emotions, school work, self-esteem, etc. The Family Dinner
Project provides many different types of questions for young kids to adults,
ranging from simple questions about their day to challenging political ones.
I took inspiration from this project and started to create a list of conversation
starters to be used by two strangers. I experimented with these questions
by asking them to a few strangers/acquaintances in my college, and used
the following guidelines to determine their suitability:
1. How awkward did it feel?
2. Were you able to create a conversation from the question?
3. Was it forced or natural?
4. Is this a suitable conversation starter between two strangers?
After this, I developed the conversation starters further and chose the
twelve questions that you would have seen in the beginning of this book.
They will ideally be asked in order (left to right on page 1 then page 2),
with the aim of getting deeper and more personal but with a natural flow.
More info: thefamilydinnerproject.org
First draft of conversation starters

19. On top of Elizabeth’s experiments around conversation, I continued to
gather inspiration through conversations in my field work. In my field work,
I brought together a range of individuals aged 5 - 62 and cooked a meal
for them. The majority of these people were family, friends and a person
twiced removed from me. During this three-hour meal, I posed questions
and noted which ones gained more responses. The one question that got
most people talking amongst each other was: “If you were a meal, what
meal would you be?”
This one question carried the table conversation for 20 minutes. This
was when I had the breakthrough of a simple but interesting question,
bonding people together. Although most answers were different, everyone
accepted each other for “the meal that they wanted to be”. As the evening
progressed I made a bold decision and asked, “Are any of you feminists?”
Despite knowing some individuals at the dinner table who were in fact
‘severe’ feminists, they did not answer. Although this was not what I was
expecting and would have liked a conversation around heavier topics such
as feminism, I definitely learnt that asking something like, “What candle
scent would you be?” was a lot more effective in its ability to get individuals
to talk. I came to the conclusion that this is because simpler questions like
these make people see others as ‘blank canvases’, where social, political
and economic implications are not projected onto them.
I understood from this dinner table conversation that simple questions
get answers that are vastly different and can give more life to the dinner
and create more conversation. This understanding was definitely applied
back to our final project where we decided to focus on simply bringing
individuals together rather than projecting a specific political viewpoint
onto them.
Segment by Eliza Barnes
DINNER TABLE CONVERSATIONS

20. FOOD AND
CONSUMERISM
Dessert

21. (COMFORT FOOD
Segment by Eliza Priest
Comfort food can be defined two different ways. As food high in calories
that is a guilty pleasure or a food that one has a connection to through
social, cultural and regional (or other ways of imbuing meaning) relations
(Troisi and Wright, 2016, p. 79). There is truth in both definitions of comfort
food and often one feeds into another. Often the meals with the most
meaning are ones that are high in calories and that are special. Comfort
food has also been proven to curb feelings of loneliness (Troisi and Wright,
2016, p. 79). Overall, the core power of comfort food seemingly comes from
the meaning behind it. We see this in Leo Burtin’s theatre work Midnight
Soup as well as in cooking shows, such as Jamie Oliver’s Comfort Food.
These separate modes of communication are enhanced and framed by the
meaning behind the dishes they serve.
However, in attempting to present comforting foods, there is an element of
‘emotional labour’ (Hochschild, 1983, pp. 6-7) needed from the presenter.
This labour is what turns it from a basic food into a source of comfort and
safety for the participant through the presenter’s conviction. Furthermore,
it speaks to the pervasive nature of consumerism that we are willing to
attempt to recreate and commodify comfort for personal/business gain.
Additionally,whilecomfortfoodhasbeenlinkedtosignificantimprovements
in mood after consumption, these results are no higher than that of eating
any food when your mood is down (Wagner, Ahlstrom, Redden, Vickers
& Mann, 2014, p.1554). What we further discovered from our research
was the individualised nature of comfort food as well. As these foods are
inextricably linked to meaning, it’s hard to pinpoint a generalised form
of comfort food. Whilst the assumption is to choose a high calorie food,
often these are not necessarily the foods that provide the most comfort.
However, it is debated as to whether the specific foods we decide on for
the recipe book make a difference in forming conversation. If the aim is the
facilitation of conversation, does the food need to be comforting at all?
Comfort classics, chicken soup and
fudgy brownies

22. FOOD
ADBUSTERS
The structural qualities of Adbusters’ works includes adopting colours, font
and overall brand image aesthetics of commercial companies to instantly
engage consumers attention as brand loyalists/ambassadors (Artz 2008,
p. 69) before they realize what the message really is. It works alongside
our saturated media in order to send a message that’s against it, which is
the reason why Adbusters are known as an anarchist group. The Canadian
group are situationists working against capitalism through cultural jamming
and repurposing mainstream media. They use slogans that are familiar
and embedded in consumers subconscious like “McLovin it” to blur
distinctions between the commercial companies messages and it’s reality.
It also works effectively in appearing
believable and as a real advertising
campaign that could roll out nationally
today. These works against McDonald’s
are preaching to the converted upper
class in contemporary society in order
to try change consumer culture and
perspectives. This group is suggesting
that there is disciplinary power (Foucault
1979) as commercial companies have
great influence over individuals lifestyle
choices and train them to be disciplined
and loyal consumers.
Grease (1993) Photographer: Daniel Illcic
& ARTSegment by Prielle Betito
(Clockwise left to right)
Special Ingredients, Amy Guidry
Adbusters #44 spoof ad, Karsten Ledelhauser and Karen Kapoor
Do you want fries with that? PETA

23. ‘1-46’ Guang Zhou dreaming
(2015), Stanley Chen
The artist created panelled paintings to capture a large bird’s eye view of
the shared experience of family meals. The lively connection and pulse
of love, warmth, a buzz of sound and excitement. The paintings are a
reflection of contemporary chinese culture with a large family structure
that fits within a crowded space displayed through the panels. The panels
appear in a figured structure that never really appears complete, as if there
is always the option to add another panel when another meal or person
joins the table- ready/flexible to constantly grow and welcome others.
Conversation starters,
MCA
Conversation starters at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) has a
similar philosophy to Feeding Feelings, to create discourse over topics
that may be uncomfortable but essential for tolerance, awareness and
development. They conduct a series of projects and one happens to value
the power of food but in particular the art of eating food with your hands.
The structural layout of the work is to have the food on low tables or on
the floor and engage with the cultural food in an intimate and informal
manner. The title of the work is “Handfed: Three courses, no cutlery, one
conversation” (2017) and the work appropriately chose the conversation
to be about eating etiquette in public. Some foods are accepted to be
eaten with our hands like pizza and burgers yet some aren’t, why? What is
defining these social and cultural divisions?
Conversation Starters (2017), MCA

24. STARBUCKS
I conducted some research on Starbucks as a location in our task for the
first week, taking inspiration from Prielle’s presentation about activism
in Starbucks. Interestingly, our final project had connected back to this
research in terms of food, consumerism and cultural differences, which is
not something we had expected at all in our first week.
Starbucks is popular all over the world and people from different age groups
and cultural backgrounds buy Starbucks coffee in their everyday life. This
phenomenon is interesting and catches much attention. It is a good idea to
compare Starbucks in USA with that of my personal experiences in China,
which is a big market for the Starbucks corporation.
Some common points found:
First of all, most of the consumers of the Starbucks are young people in
their 20s to 30s. They are easily attracted by new trends and would like to
try new things.
Secondly, no matter where in the world, Starbucks coffee constantly updates
their flavours, offerings, advertisements and visual designs. Especially for
special holidays such as Children’s Day and Christmas, the cafe will launch
new limited-time products and spend a lot of money on promoting them.
Apart from that, the stores sell cute souvenirs of many kinds, for example,
reusable mugs and key rings with the Starbucks logo. In my experience,
I have found that toys are more highly demanded than other souvenirs,
though the price is not that friendly. Some souvenirs can only be bought in
the specific countries they are offered in too, like the toy koala in Australia
and the toy panda in China. It seems that Starbucks creates its own coffee
culture and this unique culture is accepted by the market and its consumers,
as their sales numbers are far ahead of other brands.
ARound the WorldSegment by Jiayu Lu
Starbucks in USA:
America stands in the dominating position of the Starbucks coffee. The
number of the stores has been increasing steadily over the past five years.
Starbucks in China:
Chinese people enjoy the Starbucks culture. As a country with the highest
population, Chinese people’s contribution to Starbucks should not be
neglected. When friends hang out together, they like to find a Starbucks
store and order a coffee and sit down and to have a chat. Some students
and working adults will even choose to take their homework and laptops
to the Starbucks stores, enjoying the atmosphere and decorations there as
well as talking with each other about the problems they face in their studies
or work. Perhaps these customers find Starbucks to provide an environment
that helps to bring out more creative ideas and improve efficiency.
Statista, 2017

25. When I interviewed some of my friends in China, they told me that
Starbucks’ service is better than other coffee stores and the high quality of
the Starbucks’ products is the main reason that they are willing to pay more
money than other brands to buy a cup of coffee.
Starbucks’ Entry into China
Starbucks integrates its coffee culture with the tea culture in China perfectly.
It is a great combination of Western and Eastern culture. Some stores use
local tea-based ingredients to make coffee, which is a breakthrough of the
traditional ways of coffee-making.
The middle class takes the largest component of the society in China, and
they are inclined to accept the standards of the Western bourgeois class
and their lifestyle. It can also be seen as the influence of the consumerism
and communism.
The topics of food movement and activism have been discussed a lot over
the recent years. There are many books and other publications talking about
this issue, focusing on the different ways people try to change the food
system. For example, improving the science technology and sustainability,
making efforts on farms, grocery stores and restaurants. It is efficient to
deal with the problems on food processing, distribution and consumption.
Despite of the difficulty in summarising all kinds of food activisms, most of
them are concerned with protecting the environment and the earth.
The ‘Crazy Sexy Project’ by Kris Carr devotes to help people heal through
food and lifestyle practices. The soul of this project is ‘nourish yourself’. It
provides thousands of recipes made up of different kinds of green foods
with abundant nutrition for the body, such as ‘the crazy sexy kale salad’
and ‘crazy silly monsters’. They are aesthetically beautiful and also very
economical.KrisCarrgivessuggestionsfromhowtocleanyourhometohow
to pack a healthy lunch, advocating living everyday life as environmentally-
friendly as possible, limiting unnecessary waste.
FOOD
environment
&
Segment by Jiayu Lu
Author and wellness advocate Kris Carr

26. This activism also teaches us how to use natural ingredients to make
cosmetics, shampoos and conditioners for use in everyday life, as nearly
all of these products nowadays contain chemical substances (including
parabens, nanoparticles, formaldehyde, siloxanes, petroleum and so on)
that are detrimental to our health if used for a prolonged period of time.
They may damage the skin, lower the immunity and even cause cancer.
Therefore some basic ways of making the pure cleaning productions are
recommended, adding no preservatives so that the shelf life will also be
shorter than the normal ones, which is a good thing.
Another discovery I made regarding food and the environment is the
impact of environmental toxins. Cooking food incorrectly can cause loss
of the vitamins. Overuse of salt and sugar will also damage the flavour of
your food as well as negatively affect your health. Additionally, food waste
gets dumped into the sea along with other trash, affecting our ecosystems
and wildlife.
Leo Burtin’s work The Midnight Soup (2015) served as a key inspiration for
our group. The Midnight Soup was a theatre work devised by Burtin as an
‘edible memorial’ to his departed grandmother. In creating the piece, he
aimed to facilitate conversation about death and suicide around a dinner
party. This involved an opening monologue that flowed into conversation
with the audience of the work. During this process, the audience are invited
to become active participants, cooking and creating a meal together as they
talk. In doing this, the audience is given a distraction from the serious topics
being discussed. Exploring death, and stories of loss, can be emotionally
taxing but when framed around a meal, it becomes a nostalgic and shared
experience. Burtin also speaks about creating a sensory memory of his
grandmother, achieved through the smell of garlic and the meal (Gardner,
2015).
This led us to explore various sensory experiences. We compared feminine
and masculine scents, as exists in perfumes and traditionally gendered
activities, like a mother’s home cooking. Mostly, we were inspired by Burtin’s
use of food as a process tool, rather than an end product. For him, the
Natural and homemade skincare is gaining popularity
(Leo Burtin)
Segment by Eliza Priest

27. food was attached to memories of his grandmother and family. This added
value to the meals being created and warmed the audience to Burtin.
Furthermore, Burtin’s piece Le Bistroquet (2015), also uses food in a similar
manner to facilitate conversation. However, in this work he exchanges
knowledge, in the form of recipes, for food. By asking for recipes, Burtin
invites participants to consider their relationship to food and how it shapes
cultural identity (Burtin, 2015). This piece inspired our thinking into comfort
food as well. By collating everyone’s favourite dishes, Burtin invites strangers
to have insight into another person’s desires. In doing so, conversation is
created around other people’s wants and needs, forming around the food
being given to them.
In considering how Burtin used food for a sensory experience, we began
to consider how we could create a conversation around ethical food
consumption through cooking. We used both pieces as inspiration for this
book and invented the conversation starters due to Burtin’s inspiration.
In our investigations around food
activism we discovered the work of
Julia Turshen. Turshen is a chef and
cookbook author primarily, however,
inspired by the 2017 Women’s March,
she decided to branch out further into
activism. In doing so, she created her
first major activist publication with
Feed The Resistance. The cookbook
outlines recipes that are economically
sustainable and ethically sourced and is
“equal parts cookbook, handbook for
political action, and essay anthology”
(Simley, 2017). These recipes are intertwined with practical ways the
created foods can be used to engage with issues around food, politics,
race relations and other social issues. One recipe, a bread pudding, is
created using ingredients that are low cost and easily sourced, such as
bread and basic spices. The recipe is used as a guide for facilitating difficult
conversations as it’s established as a well-known comfort food and can be
created in mass quantities (Macdonald, 2017). Turshen’s main aim is to
build well informed communities around food.
This is similar to our aim. Her work formed the core
inspiration for our recipe book idea. Building from
her idea of radical recipes, we decided to take
the recipe book setting and apply it to our ideas.
The result was this recipe book. Turshen provides
activists with recipes that can be sustainable and
ethical, we, in turn, took the recipes and used
them to facilitate conversation by combining it
with the notion of conversation starters. Evidently,
the combination of all of our research has led us
to a pivotal activist work that can enact change
and create conversation using food.
(julia Turshen)
Segment by Eliza Priest

28. REFERENCES
Photographs used and artworks referenced, in order of appearance:
Book cover: Mihaela Noroc, The Atlas of Beauty
Quinoa salad: Creme de la Crumb, 2016
Lasagna: How To: Simplify, 2012
Tiramisu: The Kitchen McCabe, 2015
Martha Rosler, Semiotics of the Kitchen (1975)
Lilly Singh, How To Make A Sandwich (2016)
The Katering Show, http://thekateringshow.com/
Bobby Baker, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/jun/28/bobby-baker-performance-art and
http://dailylifeltd.co.uk/our-work/mad-gyms-and-kitchens/
Tell My Story, Blind Date (2017)
Heineken, Worlds Apart, https://www.heineken.com/gb/open-your-world
Adbusters, Big Mac Attack, http://www.adbusters.org/spoofads/big-mac-attack
Stanley Chen, ‘1-46’ Guang Zhou dreaming, 2015
Conversation Starters, MCA, 2017
Kris Carr, Crazy Sexy Project, http://kriscarr.com/blog/category/well-being/
Works cited:
Artz, L. (2008). Media Relations and Media Product: Audience Commodity. Democratic Communiqué, 22(1),
60-74.
Bogad,L.M.&Boyle,M.S.(2015).Irresistibleimages.Retrievedfrom:https://www.contemporarytheatrereview.
org/2015/irresistible-images/
Burtin, L. (2015). Le Bistroquet. HOMEMADE: Leo Burtin. Retrieved 24 October 2017, from http://leoburtin.
co.uk/portfolio/le-bistroquet/
Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and gender constitution an essay in phenomenology and feminist theory.
Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519.
Cooper, H. (2017). CSR Sugar owner linked to palm oil deforestation in Indonesia. Retrieved from http://www.
abc.net.au/news/2016-12-08/wilmar-accused-of-palm-oil-deforestation-in-orangutan-
habitat/8100800
COVERCO. (2003). The Culture of Coffee in Guatemala. Retrieved from http://www.coverco.org.gt/e_
coffeinguatemala.html
De Lauretis, T. (1987) Technologies of Gender: Essays on theory, film and fiction. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
Ethical Trading Initiative. (2015). Ethicaltrade.org. Retrieved from https://www.ethicaltrade.org/blog/gross-
exploitation-migrant-workers-still-found-in-italian-tomato-sector-despite-clean-efforts
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York: Vintage
Books.
Gardner, L. (2015). Taking stock: a cooking show about soup, suicide and strangers’ kindness. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/oct/12/leo-burtin-midnight-soup-suicide
Hochschild, Arlie, (2013). The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, Twentieth Anniversary
edn (Berkeley: University of California Press)
Macdonald, K. (2017). Julia Turshen’s Feeding the Resistance With Bread Pudding. Retrieved from https://
food52.com/blog/19940-julia-turshen-is-ready-to-feed-the-resistance-with-bread-pudding
PETA. (n.d.). Free-Range Eggs Aren’t All They’re Cracked Up to Be. Retrieved from https://www.peta.org/
living/food/free-range-eggs/
Rice, R. (2003). Coffee Production in a Time of Crisis: Social and Environmental Connections. SAIS Review
XXIII(1). 221-245.
Simley, S. (2017). How Food Can Be a Platform for Activism. Retrieved from https://longreads.com/2017/10/04/
how-food-can-be-a-platform-for-activism/
Statista. (2017). Number of international and United States Starbucks stores from 2005 to 2016. Retrieved
from https://www.statista.com/statistics/218366/number-of-international-and-us-starbucks-stores/
Sumana Chatterjee (1 August 2001). Chocolate Firms Launch Fight Against ‘Slave Free’ Labels. Philadelphia
Inquirer.
Thompson, I. (2015). The Shocking Truth About Hormones in Australian Meat. Real Food Agenda. Retrieved
from https://www.realfoodagenda.com/articles/shocking-truth-about-hormones-in-australian-meat
Troisi, J., & Wright, J. (2016). Comfort Food: Nourishing Our Collective Stomachs and Our Collective Minds.
Teaching Of Psychology, 44(1), 78-84.
Wagner, H., Ahlstrom, B., Redden, J., Vickers, Z., & Mann, T. (2014). The myth of comfort food. Health
Psychology, 33(12), 1552-1557.
THE
TEAMEven though we have specified the contributors of each segment of this
cookbook, every step up to the final product was always a team effort.
FEEDING FEELINGS
Eliza Barnes
Practicality monitor,
vibe and emotion
tracker
Jiayu Lu
Timekeeper and
peacekeeper
Prielle Betito
Facilitator and
imaginator
Eliza Priest
Agenda-setter and
go-getter
Elizabeth Chua
Scribe, editor and
graphic designer

29. (c) feeding feelings
2017