Blog Entry #6 17/10/11

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS - When choosing my activity, I wanted to choose something that I felt passionate about as I thought that it would be easier for me to break down an activity that I was interested in.  Not only was I correct, but I also found it a learning experience breaking down the art of making coffee! I found out a lot about myself in relation to the task, and also a lot of which is really incorporated in the task that I had never thought about before.  As I work around 25-35 hours per week, it was a very practical activity to choose as I had plenty of time to carry it out and really break down the activity.


INTERPRETATION OF THE ACTIVITY - I believe that a lot of people who have not worked in hospitality, or know much about what being a barista involves, thinks that it is not hard to make a cup of coffee!  I was interested to find out, so I asked a few of my friends who I thought may have this belief, and sure enough, they thought that it can't be that hard and that they would be able to learn in a day or two who to do this activity.  It is interesting to hear other people's interpretations, and when I asked about making the patterns on top, one friend stated that she had watched a barista make her a coffee before and she just, 'wiggled the milk in to the coffee and it made a pattern.  Looked easy enough.'  Yet, when I have helped teach new staff at work how to make a coffee, it always takes them a couple of months before they are able to start making patterns!
As I have talked about previously in my blog, some people view coffee making as a part of their job, some people view it as simply a drink to enjoy and some people view it as a work of art.  I read a short story by Margaret Mahy (1988) called, "A Work of Art" (p. 36-49).  This story is about a mother who bakes her son a cake for his birthday and does a wonderful job of icing it.  It then gets noticed and is taken to a gallery as an art piece as it is so wonderful.  But in the end, of course it is eaten by her son and family and friends as, even though how wonderfully beautiful it was, it was a birthday cake and was meant to be eaten.
This relates very nicely to my activity because even though the coffees can be very pretty, they are made to be drank.  This quote is from the story by Margaret Mahy (1988) (p.43), which is about the cake but explain what I am saying in relation to making coffee very nicely;
"It is functional art - this cake is meant to be used, and yet the artist shows instinctive awareness of texture and balance.  She interprets the quality of cakeness and test her creation against traditional concepts."


Reference List

Mahy, M. (1988). The door in the air and other stories. London: JM Dent & Sons Ltd.