DMA160|Winter2018

Grain : Rice, the Staple of Korean Culture

Firstly, I think it’s important for me to acknowledge that as a Nano-Bio- tech class, the discussion of food should probably veer more to the sciences than to the arts. Yet, the portion of class that related the most to me was the discussion of food, which is a remainder from biological processes and technologies, but food in the realm of its socio-cultural effects.

week 2 GRAIN

This week we talked about grain, and how bread has been used a both a social and political currency throughout history. As we sat around the table, passing around a loaf of bread Victoria cooked us, I was surprised how easily food can open people up to another. By spending time talking about grain, science, the history of bread, the simplicity of the recipe, etc, I feel like the class was able learn more about each other.

Week 02: Grain

After watching Cooked, the Netflix documentary series, I found it interesting that sourdough (yay) was THE bread for most of human history up until a hundred or so years ago. But then we discovered that white flour had the best commercial value, at the cost of stripping away all its nutrients. Rather than reverse this mistake, industries convinced the US to lax the guidelines of what constituted bread so that they could artificially add in the supposedly missing nutrients. This then leads to a culture in which we demonized certain nutrients like fat, carbohydrates, and gluton.

Week 01: Form

In doing some research into bio-art ideas, I came across Plantoid, a robot designed to reproduce itself through blockchain technology. Instead of sunlight and water, Plantoids are powered by Bitcoin. Those who appreciate the Plantoid can make donations to the Plantoid’s Bitcoin wallet, and when sufficient funds are reached, they commission artists and producers to put together an “offspring.” The offspring is based on a set of rules and “smart contracts” that both limits and guides the next generation of Plantoids. 

Life and Bread

Food is always the basic of life but it is often ignored for its accessibility and commonness. It is like a thing that always underlie in my subconscious but rarely conscious. I was initially surprised by how people around the world use breads and other foods to protest on the street, and how big a political issue food, especially grains, can cause. But it really shouldn't be a surprise.

Week 2 GRAIN

The first time watching Cooked, the line about eating flour and water vs bread made with just flour and water blew my mind. I find it amazing that humans are able to comprehend the complexity of the food we consume and how those foods affect our health. It's equally if not more incredible that nature holds latent secrets like this. Just like art and science are very similar pursuits, cooking also shares incredible similarities with these fields.

GRAIN | Triggering Memories/Culture with Grain

The top staple crops for most countries around the world include grains such as wheat or maize. Another top contender is rice, a grain that is deeply integrated in my culture and my life. I grew up eating rice in every meal in the Philippines and I continue this custom here in America. However, when I grew accustomed to the food culture in America, I realized how frequently the food culture romanticizes ingredients and staple crops.

GRAIN: Bread of Life | Week 2

During class on January 16th, we watched clips of a Netflix show called Cooked. The episode discussed the role of air in bread. Pockets of air formed inside the bread we eat contain gas that we can taste in the back of our throats, affecting the flavor. I found it very intriguing that flour and water can not sustain a human being for long. However, after baking the two into bread, it is able to keep someone alive. Some part of the baking process contains an element of life. This revelation was astonishing to me.

Week 1

I think that to critically create and approach biotech art this quarter, we will have to confront human’s role in both the progression of science and the implications of innovation on the planet.

blog post 1

​In our second lecture of first week we began the lecture with a presentation of Anthropocene and how that concept will be involved and shaped throughout the course. Taken from the web as the definition of Anthropocene, it is a proposed epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on the Earth's geology and ecosystems, including but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change.

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