Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Making Sensory 2/26

Next we'll be focusing on TOUCH. Here's what's on for the week:

READ: The Aesthetics of Touch, by Rosalyn Driscoll

POST: an interesting link + image related to touch, tactility, and/or proprioception. Make sure your links are actually HYPERLINKED using the button in the posting window! Otherwise we just see a bunch of text.

BRING: 
* CTA Card - we'll be going on a field trip to a warm, tropical place (!)
* sketchbook + pencils
* a small lump of clay - any type (these cost 99 cents)
* the reading, with your notes, highlights, underlining.




Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Sound with Fashion Industry


Fashion is inseparable from sound. Since long time ago, fashion designer started to use sound to serve for the fashion show. Nowadays, Burberry is a fashion industry company more than 100 years old. Its chief designer Christopher Bailey branched out the fashion industry company to fashion, history, acoustic, and etc. Burberry Acoustic is a very excellent sound project cooperated with fashion industry. Here are some videos:





Monday, February 25, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wio728lLOh0

I found very interesting the idea of a vibration or a pitch influencing a pattern. how audio can be related to movement, and therefore become this active part in the material, involving different senses besides hearing.

AWESOME 5 Octave Array Mbira

WebLink:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3b1bz_9gEo

I was amazed how this instrument was created. The guy is actually putting tech and wired to combine metals and wood together. This is very similar to various traditional chinese instruments such as the Shou Feng Qing and interested me- Since it sounds beautiful, looks unique and nature-relaxing and is well played: "Not a simple song at all"

Liz Phillips


http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-06/sound-artist-liz-phillips-makes-screamin-meal
Here is the link of the article about Liz Phillips . What she made is interactive installation which based on sound work.

http://lizphillips.net/w/
Here is the website of the artist.

http://www.usaprojects.org/project/biyuu
This is a work called Biyuu. Check it! It's amazing! She connects sound with  performance art.

Seeing is believing

http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/jared_ficklin_new_ways_to_see_music_with_color_and_fire.html

       It is interesting that how those people speakers "take advantage of" disabilities, and transform it into a new form. It suggests that disability not as a handicap, but a new way to approach the world. Especially, transforming subtitles into visual sound waves gives better sense of sound instead of language, because it can also visualize the sound of applause.



Unnamed Soundsculpture by Daniel Franke & Cedric Kiefer

http://vimeo.com/38840688

This link to the vimeo video is a soundsculpture done by Daniel Franke & Cedric Kiefer.

They had a dancer visualize a song through body movements & recorded with three different depth cameras, giving the piece its somewhat abstract quality.

This is very enthralling to watch and put me in a dreamlike state.

"Maywa Denki" Instruments


              "Maywa Denki" is a musical band and they also creates their own instruments for the concert.
     All the instruments are electrical and they have really fun sounds. The way to play these instruments are also unique.

http://www.youtube.com/user/maywadenki  ---- This is their Youtube channel. A lot of the videos are demonstrations on how to play their instruments. 

By the way, you could purchase their instruments on Amazon and Ebay.

Healing Delight- Color/Sound Therapy





I always believe that sound is the most powerful therapy of mental illness. People use sound to relax and meditate as well. For example, when we do yoga, we will listen to some kind of relaxing music as we gesturing. Referring to religions, Hindus also listen to some kind of vibrated, rounded echos when they are doing meditation. 
I found this one of the sound therapy videos in youtube.

Steve Reich's Pendulum Music

My Sound teacher showed us this. Steve Reich "composed" it, basically by making the instructions of letting microphones swing over amplifiers, creating rhythmic feedback. This is the piece being performed by the Dartmouth College Contemporary Music Lab.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGQa1_pBQzE

Saturday, February 23, 2013


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7aqGDmBj8w

The sounds in this video is full of chanting and the echoes from the chanting, muffling and echoes of human movement with the temple. I found this interesting because I enjoy the sound of synchronized chanting.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Non-Newtonian Fluid on a Speaker Cone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zoTKXXNQIU

i love the reaction the liquid has once it is placed on sound, because of the movement of the particles the liquid then forms into a solid. its beautiful how there is a freedom in the liquid and reaction to the sound also as if the starch is dancing.

Resources and Projects of Interest

A few resources and projects you might be interested as you experiment with sound:

If you want to create an instrument to translate your sounds, you could start HERE

For free sound samples you can mix in and mess around with, royalty free, look HERE and HERE.

If you want to see a wacky range of performances of John Cage sound compositions for inspiration, check out this site HERE.


If you're interested in looping/ delay, tUnEyArDs show how they do what they do in this video:

tUnE-yArDs perform 'Powa' on Sound Opinions from WBEZ on Vimeo.



Making Sensory 2/19

All righty, here's this week's checklist:

READ: the short Intro to Horowitz's book "The Universal Sense"
MAKE: a 1-minute sound project using your 5-minute clip from last week as the basis. The end result should be sound-focused, but can be:
* a digitally altered sound file played through headphones or speakers
* mixed with other sensory media (smell, texture, etc)
* translated into instrumental or vocal performance
* participatory

TITLE: your finished work. Consider how your title might change or enhance our perception of the sound work.

POST: a link to a sound-related project or resource of interest. As always, be sure to include:
* your own response to it (a few sentences)
* an active web link
* an image/video/sound clip!

BRING WITH YOU(!): 
*the reading
*your sound work and title
*a pair of earbuds or headphones
*a kneadable eraser or small chunk of clay
*a pencil


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Traditional Italian Pizza Recipe

Pizza Prosciutto e Funghi: 

PIZZA DOUGH 
  • 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons, or about 20 grams) active dry yeast
  • 1 1/3 cups (330 ml) warm (105-115 F, or 42-45 C) water
  • 3 1/2 - 3 3/4 cups (400-430 g) all purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • A healthy pinch of salt

ON TOP

You'll want about a cup finely sliced Champignon mushrooms
1/2 cup tomato sauce or chopped canned tomatoes
2-3 ounces finely sliced ham
1/4 pound shredded mozzarella
 Spread the tomato sauce, sprinkle the other toppings over it, drizzle with a few drops olive oil and bake.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Green Lentil Soup with Curried Brown Butter

This is one of my favorite recipes now. It's packed with flavor, it's healthy-ish, and it's easy to make. Recipe below and photo gotten from Heidi Swanson's blog 101 Cookbooks, which I recommend in general.


2 tablespoons unsalted butter, ghee, or extra-virgin coconut oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

5 1/2 cups good-tasting vegetable broth or water
1 1/2 cups green split peas, picked over and rinsed
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon Indian curry powder

1/2 cup / 125 ml coconut milk

a little salt



Combine the 2 tablespoons butter, onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes in a large soup pot over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the onions soften, a couple minutes. Add the vegetable broth and lentils and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender. This usually takes 20 to 30 minutes, but can take as long as 50 minutes.



In the meantime, warm the 3 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and let it brown. When it starts to smell nutty and fragrant, stir in the curry powder and sauté until the spices are fragrant, less than a minute.



When the lentils are finished cooking, remove from the heat, stir in the coconut milk and 1/4 teaspoon salt, and puree with an immersion blender, or in a regular blender. You can leave the soup a bit chunky if you like, or puree until it is perfectly smooth.

Stir in half of the spiced butter, taste, and add more salt, if needed, typically a couple of teaspoons if you used water instead of a salted broth. Serve drizzled with the remaining spice butter (!) and sprinkled with chives, pan-fried paneer cubes, whatever you like.

Serves 4 to 6



Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Making Sensory 2/12

Hello all -  this week you will collect sound and watch three short videos in addition to the reading. No blog post is due! Here's this week's checklist:

RECORD: Five (5) minutes of digital audio collected from somewhere other than a school/home building. This will be your raw material for next week's project: we will edit and alter it in class.

Simple recording options: use Audacity (free download), Adobe Audition, or other audio recorder on your laptop. OR you may record using a smartphone or check out a field recorder from the media center at school.

Your five minute recording can be a single long take or made up of multiple short recordings. It can be performed or ambient sound. Great excuse to visit the Chicago stock exchange room, an echoey tunnel, the zoo... or just to listen to what goes on around you on the street.

in addition, you'll need to

READ: Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller review, NY Times (highlight/underline passages of interest for discussion).
+
VIEW: the following two Cardiff and Miller videos with headphones to give context to the reading (using headphones does make a difference):




Also
VIEW: Christine Sun Kim video below
write down THREE questions you have for Christine, and bring with you to class. She'll be our visiting artist next week, live from New York via Skype (!)
Christine Sun Kim, A Selby Film from the selby on Vimeo.

so, for next week BRING WITH YOU: 
* the week's reading
* your laptop with 5 minutes of recorded audio on it
* earbuds/headphones
* 3 questions for Christine Sun Kim

Monday, February 11, 2013

Enchiladas Verdes


INGREDIENTS


4 chicken thighs, bone-in, skins removed (about 1 3/4 lbs)

  • 1 1/2 lbs tomatillos, papery husks removed, rinsed
  • 4 serrano chile peppers, top cut off to expose interior and to remove stems
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 cup white or yellow onion, chopped
  • 1/4 of a whole white or yellow onion
  • Salt
  • 1 bunch cilantro, rinsed and chopped, stems included
  • High smoke point cooking oil such as canola oil, peanut oil or grapeseed oil
  • 12 corn tortillas
  • 3 Tbsp sour cream
  • 1/2 cup crumbled Mexican Cotija or Queso Fresco cheese

METHOD

1 Put chicken thighs in a medium sized saucepan and just cover with water. Add one clove of garlic that has been cut in half, 1/4 of an onion, and 1 teaspoon of salt to the water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a low simmer, and cook, covered, for 20 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked through. Remove chicken thighs to a separate bowl and let cool enough to touch.
enchiladas-verdes-2.jpg enchiladas-verdes-3.jpg
2 While the chicken is cooking, put the tomatillos and 3 serrano chile peppers in a separate sauce pan and cover them with water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Simmer until the tomatillos are cooked, and have changed color, but are not mushy, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Use a slotted spoon to transfer tomatillos and serranos to a blender. Add 1/2 cup of the tomatillo cooking liquid to the blender, as well as 2 cloves of garlic, a third a cup of your chopped onion, and about 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro (packed). (Remaining chopped onion and cilantro will be used for garnish.) Add one teaspoon of salt. Purée until completely blended, 15 to 30 seconds. Taste for heat. If not spicy enough add another chile pepper (doesn't have to be cooked). Note that sour cream will eventually be added to the sauce which will cool down a lot of the spiciness. Add more salt to taste if necessary. Pour sauce into a skillet, bring to a simmer and let simmer for 5 minutes. Then remove from heat.
3 Remove the cooked chicken meat from the bones. Shred the meat with a fork or knife. Put the chicken in a bowl and add 1/3 to a 1/2 cup of the tomatillo sauce to the chicken. Taste the chicken; if it needs salt, add a little.
enchiladas-verdes-4.jpg
4 Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan on medium high heat. Add a tortilla to the pan and use a metal spatula to flip it to the other side. Place another tortilla on top of this one (to soak up the excess oil) and flip again. When the tortillas are heated through, remove them to a plate lined with paper towel. Add a little more oil to the pan, and add another couple tortillas. Continue to heat through and soften all of the tortillas. Note that if you are using just made homemade tortillas you can skip this step because the tortillas are already hot, softened, and ready to eat.
enchiladas-verdes-5.jpg enchiladas-verdes-6.jpg
4 Warm the oven to 200°F. Dip a tortilla in the salsa verde tomatillo sauce and place it on an oven-proof serving dish. Scoop a spoonful of chicken into the center of the tortilla and roll up the tortilla. Place on the serving dish and repeat with all of the tortillas. Put into the warm oven to keep the enchiladas warm while you finish the sauce.
5 Heat the salsa verde sauce again until simmering, then remove from heat. Stir in the sour cream until well blended. Remove the warming enchiladas from the oven and pour salsa verde sauce over all of them. Top with chopped onion, cheese, and cilantro.
Serve immediately. Serve with extra garnishes of onion, cheese, and cilantro on the side.

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chicken_enchiladas_verdes/

Reading response and Phantosmia

I found really interesting from the taste reading, the data that explains the different parts of the tongue taste the sour or sweet, the first thing that came into my mind is that if you place the same food in different places of you mouth would it taste different? Would the taste intensify or become less intense? Concerning the reading about scents, I found extremely interesting the idea that smells can deceive you. I just immediately went into Descartes first meditation, where he doubts reality because of his senses. The thought of identifying a smell varying depending on color, or language was very intriguing to me; it makes you think of how can you manipulate the way other perceive their external world.

http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/content/27/7/611.full

This hyperlink is an article about phantosmia, a disease where your olfactory perception is distorted. Concept i found really interesting in the reading, but intensified to extremes.

Mochi-Tea Ceremony Foods



Ingredients

All of these ingredients can be found at an Asian supermarket or grocery store:
1 lb Mochiko (glutinous rice flour, sometimes called sweet rice flour)
3 cups sugar
1 can coconut milk
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk(preferred for thicker sweeter mochi)
1 1/2 cups of water
A few drops of food colouring (preferably red)
Katakuriko (potato starch) (cornstarch is also a substitute or variation)
EditSteps

1Assemble the ingredients and items needed to prepare the mochi.


2Sift the Mochiko into a large bowl.


3Add the cups of white sugar.


4Add the unsweetened coconut milk. Do not stir.


5Add the cups of plain water and a few drops of food colouring. Mix with a balloon whisk until the mixture is lump free.


6Preheat the oven to 450f .


7Line the cake pans with aluminum foil (bottom and sides), grease the foil with oil or spray.


8Divide the batter into the three cake pans, cover the batter with more greased foil so that the foil is touching the batter.


9Bake for 1 hour on the middle shelf of your oven.


10Let cool for another hour, then take off the top foil from one of the pans.


11Dust a work surface with katakuriko (potato starch) and invert the mochi onto the surface. Very slowly and carefully peel off the other layer of foil, and be careful because it will try to stick.


12Cut off the crusts around the edge of the mochi. As the cook's prerogative, you can snack on these while you prepare the final product.


13Cut the mochi into triangles or squares.


14Dust each mochi triangle or square on the bottom, top and sides with katakuriko. Do this until all of the mochi are dusted.

-Other Interests/Info
-->
Mochi (Japanese sweets)
Traditionally the sweets are served before the green tea or matcha. The reason for this is the green tea is very bitter to drink by itself. When you have a sweet or mochi it helps balance the tea's bitterness. Think of it when you drink certain wines with certain foods. This helps compliment the food you are eating and the wine you are drinking.
The Japanese sweets that are served in tea ceremonies are made from glutinous rice. Sometimes the rice is mixed with a sweet red bean called azuki. One thing you'll notice the colors of the sweets correspond to the season of the year. For spring the sweets are pink to represent the cherry blossoms. A mochi will be wrapped in a cherry blossom leaf.
Kaiseki (a light meal during a tea ceremony)
The meal served during a tea ceremony is called kaiseki. Usually there is a theme to them such as a type of flower. Vegetables, fish and meat are served as part of the menu. Great care is taken in selecting the dishes and the freshest ingredients by using only what is in season. Also, the ingredients represent from where they came from: rivers, mountains, oceans, fields and forests.
There are multiple courses in kaiseki, so here are some of the highlights. Yuzu starts it off with a fragrant citrus brew. Chasoba-zushi, which is a green tea sushi soba rolled in cucumbers, shiitake mushrooms, pickled radish and mountain potato. You won't find this kind of sushi at your favorite sushi restaurant. Soup, tofu and Japanese squash are also part of the meal.
Last but not least it ends with the "stop bowl" of Japanese pickles or konomono. Its purpose is not to be a filling meal even though there are multiple dishes served. They are served in appetizer sizes, so as not to leave anything on the plate. The food is to be pleasing to the eye as it is to the palate. In a way it is much too pretty to eat. All you want to do is look at it.


----

Research IBM No.1

IBM: Computers Will See, Hear, Taste, Smell and Touch in 5 Years
By Pete Pachal | Mashable – Sun, Dec 16, 2012
Email
Share30
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Today's PCs and smartphones can do a lot -- from telling you the weather in Zimbabwe in milliseconds, to buying your morning coffee. But ask them to show you what a piece of fabric feels like, or to detect the odor of a great-smelling soup, and they're lost.
That will change in the next five years, says IBM. Computers at that time will be much more aware of the world around them, and be able to understand it. The company's annual "5 in 5" list, in which IBM predicts the five trends in computing that will arrive in five years' time, reads exactly like a list of the five human senses -- predicting computers with sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.
[More from Mashable: Black Friday Sales Surge as Shoppers Stick to the Web [REPORT]]
The five senses are really all part of one grand concept: cognitive computing, which involves machines experiencing the world more like a human would. For example, a cognizant computer wouldn't see a painting as merely a set of data points describing color, pigment and brush stroke; rather, it would truly see the object holistically as a painting, and be able to know what that means.


MY Thoughts:I think this article from Yahoo is completely ridiculous. Why are they making robots that can have human senses. This is just a bad idea leading to chaos!!!

Thoughts on Reading: I thought the reading was very informative on facts we should know about ourselves and the things we eat. It is nice to know why we taste what we taste and how it can affect our emotions.(I think this is what we might call aura sometimes). I think words do really make you picture something and we grow on words that relate to smell that imprints in our brain and end up affecting us. I think all of this is very interesting to the human brain. I wonder what it would be like to create these enviornments for people to get possible reactions that I want. (I wonder if this is a start for manipulation).I just found the reading very detailed and descriptive in some parts and very enjoyable because I could feel and smell hte things it was describing as well.
http://www.bellasugar.com/10-Interesting-Facts-About-Scent-Smells-15169338
- This is A site about interesting facts on smelling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WavjbJhiRAE
This is an informative video on more of the anatomy of smell - it refers a lot back to the readings.- i found it helpful to see visuals

Making cosmetics!!

I had a interests in making cosmetics and now I'm going to make lip balm in projet. This project makes me to getting more attentions on making natural cosmetics by myself!!

To make a Lip Balm ;

you need bee wax or vaseline, oil that has what ever you like its scents, and small glasses or a containers.

1. Melt the wax and oil completely.

2. Pour the mixture into the containers.

3. Let them be cool and ready to use.

The more details are here.


How to make Sushi.



Ingredients
2 cups sushi or short grain rice
2 cups water, plus extra for rinsing rice
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Directions
Place the rice into a mixing bowl and cover with cool water. Swirl the rice in the water, pour off and repeat 2 to 3 times or until the water is clear.

Place the rice and 2 cups of water into a medium saucepan and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.

Combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl and heat in the microwave on high for 30 to 45 seconds. Transfer the rice into a large wooden or glass mixing bowl and add the vinegar mixture. Fold thoroughly to combine and coat each grain of rice with the mixture. Allow to cool to room temperature before using to make sushi or sashimi

Empanada Recipe

This is a recipe my sister learned from her host family in Costa Rica. I like it because it's so vague.
Ingredients:
-3 cups flour
-2 sticks butter
-"maybe a lil sugar"
-"add cream and flour until it's the right consistency"
-whatever you want to stuff them with

"mush it together with yo' hands"

make small balls with the dough
flatten them out into circles, add a dollop of whatever you're putting inside (can be literally anything, sweet or savory)
fold the circles in half and pinch the edges together using a fork
place the empanadas a couple inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees F, until golden brown (usually about 20 minutes)


"That recipe is oh-so sensory. You use your hands to mush it up! It smells nice! It tastes nice!"

KALBI (Korean BBQ)


KALBI



Ingredients
5 pounds Korean style beef short ribs*
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup mirin (rice wine)
1 small onion, peeled and finely grated
1 small Asian pear, peeled and finely grated
4 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 green onions, thinly sliced (optional)
Preparation:
Directions
Sprinkle brown sugar over beef and mix well to evenly coat. Let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes while preparing marinade. In a bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Transfer beef into a large sealable freezer bag (you may need 2). Add marinade, press out excess air from bags, and seal. Turn bag over several times to ensure beef is evenly coated. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours but preferably overnight.

Heat gas or charcoal grill to medium-hot. Drain excess marinade off beef. Grill short ribs, turning once, to desired doneness, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Garnish with thinly sliced green onions, if desired. Serve whole pieces as a main course or cut into smaller pieces, using kitchen shears, for a starter or party nibble.

* NOTE: Korean-style short ribs can be found at most Asian markets. The cut, also known as "flanken," refers to a strip of beef cut across the bone from the chuck end of the short ribs. Unlike American and European-style short ribs, which include a thick slice of bone-in beef, Korean-style short ribs are cut lengthwise across the rib bones. The result is a thin strip of meat, about 8 to10 inches in length, lined on 1 side with 1/2-inch thick rib bones. The thin slices make for fast cooking on the grill.

A viewer, who may not be a professional cook, provided this recipe. The Food Network Kitchens chefs have not tested this recipe and therefore, we cannot make representation as to the results.

link : http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/kalbi-korean-barbequed-beef-short-ribs-recipe/index.html

Crab Curry




Ingredients

2 x 1.2kg live mud crabs
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
½ cup grated fresh coconut*
50g ghee
1 tsp black mustard seeds*
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 red onion, quartered, sliced
10 curry leaves
3 long green chillies, finely chopped
1 tbs Jaffna curry powder*
2 tsp ground chilli
¼ tsp ground turmeric
400ml (1⅔ cups) coconut milk
1 tbs seedless tamarind purée*
1 sprig murunga (drumstick)*, leaves picked
½ lime, juiced
Steamed rice (optional), to serve

Preparation

To prepare crabs, place them in the freezer for 2 hours to put them into a stupor. Place each one on its back with the eyes facing you, then drive a thick skewer or the point of a sharp knife between the eyes and into the centre of the crab. Break off tail flaps on the underside and discard. Carefully pull off back shells and reserve. Cut each crab in half lengthwise, then remove the ‘dead man’s fingers’ (soft gills) and discard. Rinse and discard the stomach sac. Cut each crab half into 3. Leave the large claws attached, but crack them with the heel of a knife.

Place cumin seeds and peppercorns in a large frying pan over high heat. Cook for 2 minutes or until toasted. Transfer to a mortar, wipe pan clean with paper towel and return pan to high heat. Add grated coconut and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until golden, then add to cumin seed mixture with 1 tbs water. Grind to a smooth paste with a pestle and set aside. Alternatively, process in a small food processor to a paste.

Heat ghee in a large, heavy-based saucepan over high heat, add mustard seeds and cook for 30 seconds or until seeds pop. Add fennel seeds and cook for a further minute or until fennel seeds start to brown. Add onion, curry leaves and chillies, and cook for 4 minutes or until onion is browned. Add curry powder, ground chilli and turmeric, and stir to combine. Add crab and reserved crab shells, and cook, stirring constantly so the spices don’t burn, for 3 minutes or until crab starts to change colour.

Combine spiced coconut paste, coconut milk, tamarind purée and 500ml (2 cups) water in a bowl. Add to crab mixture and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer, tossing crab halfway, for 12 minutes or until crab is just cooked. Increase heat to medium, remove lid and simmer for 4 minutes or until liquid is slightly thickened. Season with salt and stir in murunga leaves and lime juice.

Divide crab among bowls and spoon over some curry sauce. Serve with rice, if desired, and remaining curry sauce.

* If you can’t find fresh coconut, use frozen shredded coconut, available from Asian food shops, or substitute moistened dried coconut flakes. Check out the coconut grater that Peter uses at Flying Fish in Bite-Size Pieces.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Perfumes Inspired by Dead Writers


Perfumes Inspired by Dead Writers


Falling down the Etsy rabbit hole is one of my internet-ish weaknesses, and upon one of these bottomless falls I came across this Dead Writers Perfume, which is made with "black tea, vetiver, clove, musk, vanilla, heliotrope, and tobacco." The combination reminds me of an old, worn book and maybe a dude with a dusty velvet jacket using a feather pen to write an opus, and I got to wondering what perfumes based on individual dead writers might look like. A few ideas:
Ernest Hemingway: Salt water, rum, coconut and lime, cigar smoke, Spanish wine
F. Scott Fitzgerald: Gin, citrus, oak (prep school, amirite), in a champagne-flute shaped bottle with gold flecks in it
Jane Austen: Darjeeling tea, snowdrops and pansies (flowers from her garden), meadow grass
Dorothy Parker: Whiskey sour, vanilla, mandarin, white musk
Edgar Allan Poe: Poppies, absinthe, sandalwood, and mold
Flannery O'Connor: Church incense, soap, vanilla, ginger
Jack Kerouac: Cigarettes, cheap beer, unwashed youth, patchouli, car leather
The Bronte Sisters: Heather, sea air, vetiver, primrose, black tea
Louisa May Alcott: Fir tree, red currant, blood orange, coffee beans
Tolstoy: Vodka, musk, black tea, black peppercorn, cedar
Sylvia Plath: Freshly washed linen, vanilla, daffodils, lavender
Margaret Mitchell: Musk, magnolia, tea, sugar, gardenia blossoms
Dickens: Cloves, tobacco, patchouli, brandy water, river water
Anne Sexton: Vodka martini, tobacco, lemon verbena, peppermint

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-nelson/perfumes-inspired-by-dead_b_2589466.html


Custard Pudding


 This is one of my favorite dessert back in childhood, I guess have an obsession on food that have the smooth and tender texture..
Custard Pudding
recipe from:http://www.food.com/recipe/custard-pudding-245460
Ingredients:
2 -3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 cup skim milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
1
Mix together the sugar and cornstarch, then add the eggs. Beat until the mixture is well combined and pale colored.
2
In a large saucepan, bring the milk to a boil over miedium-high heat. Stir frequently to keep it from sticking.
3
Add a little of the hot milk to the egg mixture, and stir until combined. Then pour the egg mixture into the milk.
4
Cook the mixture until it reaches desired thickness, stirring constantly.
5
Stir in the vanilla.
6
Remove from heat, and place plastic wrap on the surface of the pudding instead of just around the pot. This will prevent a skin from forming while it cools.


****Here I also have a video showing the process, however, the ingredients and directions are kind different. *****
this video is from the youtube channel :
Cooking with Dog http://www.youtube.com/watchv=N6JZx86OyXM&list=UUpprBWvibvmOlI8yJOEAAjA
(the host has shared a lot other yummy Japanese dishes recipe.  )

Piss Painting Recipe

"Piss Painting", Andy Warhol


Materials: Canvas, Modern Masters Copper Paint, Modern Masters Patinas
Recipe: 
1. apply two coats of copper paint on canvas
2. experiment with the acids and bases by dropping liquid (could be water, vinegar, urine or anything!!) onto their copper paintings




Friday, February 8, 2013

The Art of Food Photography

Moroccan tea culture



File:Minttea.JPG
http://coffeetea.about.com/od/tearecipes/r/Mint-Tea-Recipe.htm
 
Fresh mint leaves give mint tea (technically an herbal tea or tisane) a pungent menthol aroma and flavor. This recipe is a basic, caffeine-free mint tea recipe with options to adapt it to your specific tastes. It can be served hot or iced. For Moroccan mint tea (a blend of green tea and mint leaves), see this Moroccan Mint Tea Recipe.

Prep Time: 3 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 8 minutes

Yield: Two servings

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups filtered water
  • About 15 fresh mint leaves
  • (Optional) Sugar or honey, to taste (start with about 1 tsp per cup and add more as desired)
  • (Optional) Ice
  • (Optional) 2 lemon wheels, or lemon juice to taste

Preparation:

  1. Bring the water to a rolling boil.
  2. Remove from heat and add the mint leaves.
  3. Steep for three to five minutes, depending on desired strength.
  4. Add sweetener as desired.
  5. (Optional) Pour over ice.
  6. (Optional) Garnish with lemon wheels or add lemon juice to taste.
  7. Serve hot in mugs or iced in tall glasses

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Making Sensory 2/5

Hello everybody,

Here's the checklist for this week:

READ the interview with smell/sound artist Gwenn Ael-Lynn, and highlight sections you find interesting for discussion.

POST a recipe that's somehow connected to you or your artistic interests: can be a recipe for a family dish, something you learned to make recently, or something entirely made up and concept-based. Please include a related IMAGE and, if you get the recipe from another source, include a HYPERLINK.

* NOTE: if you did not post anything for last week's assignment, make sure you do it now! Blog posts are part of course participation.

BRING your taste/smell project to present and discuss in class. Will you bring meaning to the sensation of taste or smell through visual cues, language, tactile packaging, human interaction? As the artist, you'll need to consider HOW we (the audience) will engage with the work, and how we can access your understanding and research of the material.

REMEMBER In the afternoon we'll transition into sound art with a lecture and workshop by sound artist Jacob Christopher Hammes. He activates all five senses through sound using hypnosis. Here's a link that explains a little about his collaborative studio practice: SYNESTHETIC COLLECTION , and you can find the website for all of his work is HERE. He will lead a group hypnosis session with the class (!!) If you choose not to participate in the hypnosis component of the lecture, let me know ahead of time so that we can arrange an alternate project.

Any questions or technical issues, please email me before the weekend!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Clever Food Art by Sarah Illenberger


German art director and photographer Sarah Illenberger proves that witty concept and simple tools is a winning combination. The 36-year-old Berlin-based artist reinvents common fruits and vegetables by meticulously handcrafting them into something new.
Her ideas might come from a word play of the two objects she merges together, or from the way they’re used – pomegranate becomes an actual grenade, a lighter starts firing chilli peppers. Be sure to check out her website for more!