cleland-creativetech-blog

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

DESIGN FOR BUSINESS

Started our design, a container for a hot beverage.

We got into groups and discussed our own personal preferences as if we were buying a mug and discovered some of the preferences each of us had on many design aspects before talking through many of our own ideas.

Important ideas for me from our group discussion - Connection to the user    hands and lips molds to your hand(and lips?)  gel,silicon,memory foam tactile, slightly textured  curved, unique, one off, imperfect overall look

Other ideas to explore more - customised silicon sleeve colour changing Slide lid    Salt shaker with twist select non-round shape under cup storage

I think each of us has a different idea on how functional it needs to be or the importance of the aesthetic element but we made good headway today with our discussion and even agreed on some ball park concepts we would like to peruse.

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

Integrative Practice Reflection

Assignment 2

We set out to question whether brains were good to eat or not. No one in our group had even tried brains before, so what are they like? There was a bit of apprehension about trying them as popular beliefs about eating brains made us question our sanity in trying them and everyone's initial thought was that they would taste bad. 

Despite some of the facts we discovered that state how nutritious they are, even described as super-foods by Mercola, D. (2013), the conflict between fact and fiction played a hugh underlying part in determining whether brains were good to eat or not.  Even the best cooking methods we tried couldn’t sway individual perception.

As I explored more of the underlying thoughts and opinions about the consumption of brains, I discovered that these thoughts and opinions were stronger than any facts about the health benefits, or positive experience with taste that others had had.

Not dying from the experiment did mean that most of us were a little less apprehensive about eating brains in the future if we were served them at a social event, and that in reality they didn’t taste bad at all.

All this leads me to think that our own thoughts, that appear to be mostly influenced by zombie movies, are stronger than any other disciplinary authority or expert. Otherwise we would have changed our opinions after discovering new knowledge about nutrition and taste that agrees with other experts, and be fine about eating brains in the same way as eating the rest of the lamb.

While we aimed to work within the interdisciplinary framework we did change around a bit in my opinion. We did still get new and interesting information and thoughts from everyone. I don’t think any of the new knowledge we gained has changed the personal views we had before. Despite finding out brains don’t have a bad taste and are good for you, they won’t be appearing on any of our plates any time soon. 

REFERENCES

Mercola, D. (2013). The Health Benefits of Consuming Organ Meats.   Retrieved October 15, 2015, fromhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/30/eating-organ-meats.aspx

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

MAMA-K Group manifesto

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

View or download our brain cooking kitchen adventure timelapse…

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

Post brain eating post

by Aaron Cleland

I ate brains for science, actually I did it for the quality of the experience.

We all met up at Amanda’s house to combine our knowledge and cook our brains.

I read about eating brains and discovered there is a big difference of opinion about whether they are good to eat or not. Some people love them, some people can’t stand them, for example Matt T.

I questioned him on his total dislike before even trying them and his response was a common one. It was the thought of eating brains not really anything to do with brains actually tasting bad. Even though the others in our group could not think of any reason to dislike them, no one including myself found any pleasure in the ‘thought’ of eating brains.

Zombie movies don’t help with this thought nor do ancient beliefs and rituals that make the eating of things like brains, an unusual act.

From my previous research I had built up an idea of what brains must taste like based on other people’s description of the flavour and texture. I imagined the smell to be quite off putting but it was not the case in reality.

Numerous people online commented on how lovely and creamy brains were. This didn’t make sense to me as I have never associated any type of meat with creamy, but I now understand what they meant. I do not think anyone could have described this aspect of how brains taste without trying it for myself.

We chose to explore cooking and eating brains from an interdisciplinary framework. We each contributed food items to put with the brains and supplied utensils to prepare and cook the brains in different ways based on our roles and group discussion.

I chose to soak in vinegar then crumb half of mine, then the rest went into a curry made from coconut milk and turmeric. Both these options I thought would taste amazing and would not put anyone off trying them for the first time. I thought that cooking them in a familiar way would help people to associate it with food they know tastes good and feel good about, even though they were still eating brains. Most people enjoy crispy fried chicken and a curry right?

After discussing with others about the ingredients they bought and why, I decided to alter what I was using. Kento had some lemon and parsley that I thought would add a zing to my dish and Amanda had parmesan that I thought would work nicely mixed with my panko breadcrumbs.

I liked being able to discuss options and ideas with others and in my opinion it made for a much better outcome when this occured.

At times I think we worked more cross-disciplinary but after cooking together experimentally and tasting brains cooked in different ways, we all discovered that there was nothing wrong with the taste of brains, it was all about the thought of eating brains that just made us feel a bit weird.

We all seemed to agree that crumbing the brains like Matt H and I did was the best tasting and least weird way of eating them. Probably because of their likeness to chicken nuggets and similar taste to crumbed mushrooms. Poaching them before crumbing them like Matt H did in his approach, worked the best. The underlying thought of the group was if we were to do this again then this process gave us the best tasting brains with good plate appeal to help overcome some of the bad connotations that eating brains has.

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

Brains Prep

by Aaron Cleland I was surprised to see that the main reason for eating brains is that you are a zombie!

Why have brains got such a bad reputation and not eaten very often in our country. Do they really taste that bad?

Nutritionally, brains are described as superfoods of the animal world, Mercola, D. (2013) but seem to be avoided by our culture.

Even amongst our group there was some mixed responses to the thought of eating brains. Logically the brains of the lamb shouldn’t be any different to eat than the other meat from the lamb but for some people it is. What is it about eating brains that is so bad?

We found brains were remarkably hard to source for our brain eating experiment. I was told by a few butchers that they were not that common and might be hard to find. Most are exported overseas to places like France where they “will fry and sautee them with lemon and parsley, poach them and put them in terrines.”. Womans Weekly. (n.d.)

Comments from people that have actually eaten brains are positive. They comment on how creamy and delicious they are. “Mild and sweet with a creamy texture, brains can be served hot or cold.” Louisa Carter(n.d.)

Friday will see us do our cooking and eating. It’s hard to imagine how it will go and how they will taste once we have dealt to them.

REFERENCES

Mercola, D. (2013). The Health Benefits of Consuming Organ Meats.   Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/30/eating-organ-meats.aspx

Womans Weekly. (n.d.). Cooking Lambs Brains.   Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://www.nzwomansweekly.co.nz/food/nanas-pantry/cooking-lambs-brains/

Lousia Carter. (n.d.)  Brain Recipes.  Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/brain

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

Heston Blumenthal is a great example of someone that brought together knowledge from multiple disciplines to redefine what cooking is. His often strong scientific approach mixed with extremely creative ideas make for some of the most extreme dishes I’ve seen.

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

From Monday

After discussion we chose to identify ‘Inter-disciplinary” frameworks, Integrating knowledge and methods from different disciplines.

We talked about real world examples and tried to identify whether or not they were a inter-disciplinary way of working. One of the better examples mentioned was in the world of cooking, so the aim is to explore this subject more. Historical methods and how things have come together to form the dishes we eat today.

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

MOVEMBER

MOVEMBER is here soon so... 1st November my beard and mo go and I grow a new mo to help get men talking about health issues and raise some money for a good cause.

http://mobro.co/aaroncleland If you would like to Donate, go to http://mobro.co/aaroncleland.Prostrate Cancer, Testicular Cancer, Poor Mental Health and Physical Inactivity are big issues for men and all great causes to give to.   Cheers

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

ENEL599 S2 Assignment 2

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

ENEL599 S2 Assignment 2

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

Looking at this topic for my DIY. I’d be keen to work in a small team if any one else is interested in a similar topic. Let me know

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

Discussion

What are the discourses inter-disciplinarity? Shared or common ideas between disciplines, on a particular topic that for some reason gain traction and become more defined. Maybe stronger arguments arise when more than one discipline, through conflict, work it through to a point that once opposing views now have common things they agree on. The more defined something becomes over time, the less people need to re-think and re-agree about it. They become the accepted ideas and ways of doing things. 'The norm' or 'That's the way it's done'. Tangent- Marketing can take advantage of 'norms', objectifying people for financial gain by selling them something to fit a need, that through clever marketing, they have created themselves. Who are the subjects of inter-disciplinarity? Inter-disciplinary knowledge is subject to both disciplinary fields equally. As soon as that is not the case it ceases to be inter-disciplinary. You can only be subject to something through choice. As opposed to being subjected to something by force. 'Subject' def: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/subject Being in a position or in circumstances that place one under the power or authority of another or others. You can change your position. You can change your circumstances. Therefore, you choose to be subject to something. Not choosing or lack of knowledge is simply a choice for the current or cultural 'norm'. What is the nature of interdisciplinary knowledge? Knowledge that you have in common with another discipline that is different than the discipline you would normally operate within. A compromise you choose or new knowledge you adopt. Who decides in utopia? The person who's utopia it is. Buy into someones idea of utopia, you become a subject of that person.

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

Auckland Architecture Week - Nat Cheshire

I really enjoyed hearing Nat speak at Auckland University about the work and projects he has done, including Britomart. His approach to Architecture is very Creative Technologies which was surprising and inspiring.

Some things he talked about that I particularly liked were -

Provoke others to do their best work

Collaborate, and concentrate on editing ideas

Make everything yourself

His lightning designs

Take a small thing and make it into something big

Give your client what you think they would have asked for if they knew how to ask for it. 

Capped employees at 24 people max. No receptionist! 

Wishes it was ‘The Institute of Architecture’ instead of ‘The Institute of Architects’ 

[cleland-creativetech-blog]

[cleland-creativetech-blog]