CCDN 231 - each experiment

The first experiment focussed on the feeling when related to the structure of feeling – Austerity. The following quote from Wild Things by J. Attfield (2000) “defining the 'minimalist' lifestyle as the type who is 'not into clutter'” can be interpreted as “clutter” being size and the amount of space taken up. To become minimalist and be a type that is “not into clutter” the size of the chewing gum can be reduced. This will force the user to savour the small amount that they do have and adhere to the true nature of Austerity in terms of rationing. The size of the chewing gum felt minimalist, it felt like the user was being somewhat ‘Cheated out of a stick of gum’ because the piece was not whole. This also forced the user to relish what they had and made it feel as if a whole piece of gum was a luxury for their mouth in terms of feeling. The smaller piece of gum was considered pointless in the users’ mouth, feeling as if it was too small to chew properly.

The second experiment used the sense of feeling of Austerity. This experiment focussed on the sense of taste. Austerity can be described effectively in Minimalist Design by Franco Bertoni (2004): “In any creative activity the term Minimalism usually refers to the radical stripping away of the expressive means and to its consequent formal austerity.” This has been taken into account by stripping away what people take for granted when chewing on a piece of gum. In terms of chewing gum, the expressive means is the continuous chewing of gum, taking all the flavour until it is rubber. “Yet Minimalism stands apart from the numerous trends that have succeeded one another convulsively over the past decades.”

For the last experiment I took inspiration from a C. Dyhouse (2011) extract stating: “Glamour has not always been fashionable. In twentieth century fashion, glamour had its clichés: glitter, fur and slinky dresses, hothouse flowers and a slash of bright red lips.” Using this information on glamour, the experiment focussed on the sense of sight. One stick of gum was painted silver to appear more high-class or “glamorous” and had a similar appearance to a small bar of silver. Because of the gums natural colour, the stick ended up appearing more of an emerald hue, which in turn can seem more glamorous. Another stick was coated in an edible glitter substance that was stuck to the gum with vodka that evaporated, gluing the glitter to the gum. Before it had fully evaporated however, some of the vodka was absorbed by the gum. This gave the shining appearance to the stick of gum, as well as an enhanced richer flavour that can be seen as a high-class, glamorous taste.

References:

Attfield, J. (2000) Wild Things. London: Berg

Bertoni, F. (2004) Minimalist & Design. London: Birkhauser.

Dyhouse, C. (2011) Glamour: Women, History, Feminism.  London: Zed Books.

CCDN 231 - Photos!

This is imagery for the feeling experiment! The gum is cut in half and then tested. The result turned up that it felt small and rationed because it wasn't as large and wasn't normal.

This is imagery of the Glamour sight. The gum was painted silver and had glitter stuck to it with a vodka solution. The Glitter was brushed on with vodka, then the vodka evaporated leaving the glitter stuck to the gum. The gum had absorbed a little bit of the vodka so to add to the glamour it had a faint alcoholic taste.

The last experiment was for taste. The user was forced to stop chewing after five chews. The result was the user attempted to make the most of each of their chews and savour the chewing gum flavour for as long as possible.

CCDN 231 - Proposal

Here's the proposals for the experiment i intend to carry out!

I am focussing on a different sense for each experiment so that they end up being different. For chewing gum the main senses that come into effect are taste, sight and feel. So i will use these for the three experiments that i do.

First Experiment - The first experiment will use feeling. The statement of feeling chosen for this experiment is Austerity. For this experiment, the change will be quite minimal, but the change of feeling for the sense will be very extensive. The gum will be cut in half so that it is really small. Small change to the actual experience, yes, but the feeling of the gum when being chewed will be changed greatly. I am hoping that it will feel so minimal and quite strict which makes the user appreciate the size of a full piece of gum. This is taking into account the rationing of the Austerity feeling.

Second Experiment - The second experiment is also for the statement of feeling Austerity. It changes the sense of taste by limiting the user to only a small number of chews. This forces the user to ration the flavour that they get from each chew, rationing how they chew and when they chew. It's a statement on how people take the monotonous repetative chewing for granted.

The final experiment for sight had a change to the statement of feeling. Because chewing gum has a very minimalist appearance already, instead i have decided to change the minimal stick of faded colour to be more glamorous. I have taken inspiration from a glamour source that quotes "Glamour has not always been fashionable. In twentieth century fashion, glamour had its clichés: glitter, fur and slinky dresses, hothouse flowers and a slash of bright red lips." I intend to add edible glitter to the chewing gum and colour it more impressive of a colour, rather than just a faded dull colour.

CCDN 231 - Description of Assignment

Photos will soon follow, but here are the descriptions of each persons interview. These will be printed out and put onto the frame along with the "preserved" piece of gum that they chewed.

Henrietta Hitchings

How it was Chewed – Henrietta chewed with her back teeth and so much that it gave her a headache. She used her tongue to roll it back on itself so that the gum remained circular.

Duration of Chew – She chewed the gum until her temples and jaw hurt. She didn’t mind about the taste changing but stopped if there was a gross texture or was too sore.

 Feel – She felt like the gum was a hindrance in her mouth, making it hard to talk or eat. She didn’t think about her tongue position or the gum position but focused on the shape of the gum.

Taste – Taste was not important to Henrietta, she focused more on the feeling of the gum.

Sebastian Voerman

How it was Chewed – Sebastian had two pieces that he kept separate in his mouth so that he could maximize the amount of flavor. Once the initial flavor was gone he strung both pieces together and rolled it around with his tongue a lot.

Duration of Chew – He felt that the gum had a strange oily feeling and taste that could perhaps be his own saliva after the mint had faded. He stopped chewing then since the gum had gone rubbery and lost its taste.

Feel – The gum felt dry at first, and felt like “Cutting through the consistency of an apple, without the crunch”. Once his saliva “melted” the gum it was rubbery and felt like a “strange rubbery glutinous mass” in his mouth.

Taste – The initial burst of flavor was strong and good when the gum was first broken. When the flavor faded it had a rubbery fake taste.

Michelle Bicknell

How it was Chewed – Michelle kneaded the gum with her tongue, moving it from side to side in her mouth so the mint flavor was all throughout her mouth.

Duration of Chew – She chewed until it had gone rough and rubbery, whether the flavor had gone or not. With mint, the flavor lasted longer so even if the gum had faded, she still felt like it was fresh.

Feel – She said it “Feels like a blanket over your molars” when the gum molds around your teeth. It felt sleek at first until it had been chewed too much, and then left a rough feeling on her tongue.

Taste – The initial blast of freshness had the most impact on Michelle. Occasionally she would flatten the gum against the top of her mouth so the mint would flow into her mouth.

Dan Young

How it was Chewed – Dan chewed the gum in the side of his mouth until it was flat, then folded it over on top of itself with his tongue so that it is round again. He then continuously repeats the process.

Duration of Chew – He chewed for so long the gum had no flavor and was hard and rubbery. Dan chewed because it was a natural feeling for him rather than for the taste.

Feel – He said he didn’t mind the rubbery feeling of the old gum. It felt normal for him to chew for those long durations and felt like an automatic action to chew.

Taste – The taste had long gone by the time Dan had finished with the gum. There was a slight rubbery flavor and felt like it should taste like something but no taste was coming from the gum after a while.

Sarah Duweke

How it was Chewed – Sarah flattened the gum a lot, whether it was against the top of her mouth or against the shapes of her teeth. She did this to get the flavor rather than the chewing action.

Duration of Chew – The gum was quickly spat out after the flavor had been lost. There was no further chewing when the flavor was gone.

Feel – She didn’t chew the gum, but flattened it and folded it to get the majority of the flavor. This made it feel like a “film over her mouth” when she had the gum in. It felt nicer to fold it and get the taste rather than repetitive chewing action.

Taste – The flavor of the spearmint was better than the peppermint as the peppermint was too sweet and less minty. As she folded it the taste leaked into her mouth, tasting just the right kind of sweet.

CCDN 231 - Sensory Auto-Ethnography 3

For me, Making Tea is an everyday activity that I don’t really focus on when it comes to senses.

Feel: I feel warm when I am making tea. The hot water especially helps to warm me up on the inside and I just feel better, more awake.

Smell: The smell of a strong tea is really a big kick for me, to help me wake up. It is a nice, nearly sweet scent that I really like.

Taste: Tastes bland without milk in my tea. Tea has a rich, herbal taste. PG tips is really smooth tasting, quite creamy almost. The taste of a good cup can bring up fond memories.

Sight: Watching the herb blend leak out into the water as I pour the hot water into the cup making it deep bronze looks delicious.

Sound: Slosh of the liquid hitting the cup, squeezing the bag against the edge of the cup to get as much of the tea extract out as possible, dribbling any liquid from the bag back to the cup.

CCDN 231 - Sensory Auto-Ethnography 2

Washing your hands is an action that people do multiple times a day without thinking about it.

Feel: The cold water – Addition of soap makes it feel sort of slimy when you take the smell away. Water mixed with soap actually makes your hands feel “clean”.

Smell: Fresh smell, smells nice and clean without being stereo-typical mint. Smells nice, fresh especially with flower scents.

Taste: Personally, I didn’t taste soap when I was washing my hands. But I assume, besides the gross toxic sort of flavour, it may taste similar to the scent.

Sight: Don’t really pay attention when people wash their hands – bubbles look like they are doing their job, cleaning hands.

Sound: When you move your hands together quickly, it sounds sort of slappy and squishy when you’re washing.

CCDN 231 - Sensory Auto-Ethnography

Chewing Gum!

Western civilisation has been brought up with the idea that the taste of mint is "Clean" and "Fresh". This is especially involved with brushing your teeth. Chewing gum, similar to brushing teeth, can be closely related to the idea of freshness and cleanliness. More in particular, when chewing 5 Gum, peppermint, the particular gum that I have selected, the sense of freshness in my mouth is felt.

Feel
I've decided to focus on feel first. Initially, I found that I unintentionally, unconsciously folded the gum up with my tongue. By doing this, i made the piece of gum smaller in my mouth which felt more comfortable to chew for an extended duration of time. Once sufficient chewing has occurred, and the gum is all squishy, i felt that the peppermint felt nearly spicy in my mouth! Not like you're eating a curry or anything, but like pins and needles in my mouth, stabbing little bits. Now don't get me wrong, this wasn't an uncomfortable feeling, it made my mouth feel more clean in fact. If it wasn't peppermint flavoured gum, i don't think that it would feel as clean. I, of course, was brought up in western society, so relate peppermint and spearmint to cleanliness and freshness. The feeling of chewing continuously seems quite natural for me. Not saying i eat all the time or anything, but it feels more natural to chew gum for long durations than it feels to chew something that wouldn't retain its shape. The fact that is does retain its shape and doesn't fall apart makes it more chewable it seems. After chewing the gum for a long time though, the gum gets rubbery and feels horrible in my mouth.

Sight
There isn't really much to see with chewing gum. It looks simple, nearly unappealing. It's a small stick of colour. That's it. What's more interesting with the sight of gum is the wrapping that it's in. For example, the Extra chewing gum or Extra professional chewing gum can have ice and water on the packet. These images, because of their extreme clarity, make the chewing gum look as if it cleans even more. They colours usually represent the flavour that the stick of gum is. There isn't really much more about looking at gum. Chewing gum is mostly about feel and taste.

Smell
There is little smell that accompanies chewing gum. It does have that spice mint scent that can tingle your nose in a similar way that it tingles your mouth. Other than that particular feeling, which is in fact a feeling rather than a smell, there is a really large artificial smell to chewing gum. It doesnt really smell like mint, the herb, which, to be completely honest, i haven't tasted by itself so don't know if it tastes similar, but im going to assume that it is a really artificial taste, quite similar to the artificial smell.

Sound
The sound of chewing gum.. well.. it can get quite frustrating. For example, sitting in a room trying to work while there is another person in the same room, continuously blowing bubbles with the gum.. POP! POP! POP! POP! It gets annoying after a while.. But when it comes to actually chewing the gum, the sound is quite interesting. A wet, slurp with each bite sounding throughout your head, with every single bite. When you're not focusing on it directly, you wouldn't notice the continuous sound over and over and over. But listening closely as you chew it, it can sound weird and a little gross. The wet biting on the rubbery gum, it's kind of uncomfortable.

Taste
The spicy, mint of peppermint gum, It's what Western civilisation consider "Clean". It sort of feels like the mint is burning away anything that is unhealthy in your mouth, and stays there for a long duration. No taste is the most important sense when it comes to chewing gum. I call it spicy, but it isn't really spicy. It tingles, which i suppose it's just the cleaning part that comes along with the peppermint flavour. It's interesting, it provides a cool burst of flavour that stays in your mouth for a long time, but why do we consider this "clean"? I suppose its because of the vitamins that are in the peppermint plant right? but the taste, the taste of that is what we in a Western society refer to as fresh and clean. This tingly burst of flavour is nice, in my opinion.