The process by which I have created a physical manifestation of questions raised by Hannah Arendt’s theory on the Human Condition is called “critical making”. Patrick Jagoda calls critical making a “fresher way of building on decades of work in critical theory…[it] refers to a diversity of practices, techniques, and collaborative projects that privilege experiences of making to acts of interpretation,” (357). In other words, critical making is a way of showing theory by applying it in ways other than through essay format – it can be done through creating a physical object, including but not limited to a photograph, a poem, a song, or some other physical object. Critical making, as coined by Matt Ratto in 2008, is a process which connects theoretical concepts to physical manifestations of said theories, hereby known as the Created Thing (253). According the Ratto, there are three aspects that go into critical making. They are A) reviewing relevant texts and literature about theory, B) designing and building prototypes of the Created Thing with your peers, and C) reconfiguring and reflecting on the Created Thing in order to evaluate how it shows the theory. Ratto, however, claims that the critical making process can use any of these three aspects as a starting point (253).
For my project, I have created a small toolset and a toolbox made entirely out of Rice Krispie treats (see Appendix A). What, one might ask, do Rice Krispies have to do with critical making? Well, reader, this is your answer: Rice Krispies have everything to do with critical making. I started by studying Hannah Arendt’s theory on the Human Condition, and more specifically, what she says about Work and Labour and Art. Following this, I constructed the Rice Krispies tools, and as the final step, I am, here in this piece, reflecting on my choice of medium, as well as what sorts of theoretical questions I am raising about Arendt’s theory.
I chose to use the medium of Rice Krispies cereal treats because of the link into Arendt’s concept of permanence of art, and its durability over time. To understand my choice of medium, I must give a brief description of Arendt’s theory, consisting of her ideas on durability, reification, and permanence and how they intertwine.
Arendt says that when we use something, we consume it, and it deteriorates or decays over time until it is no longer usable; she says, “what usage wears out is durability…the wearing-out process comes about through the contact of the use object,” (157-158), meaning that the more we use things, the quicker their lifespan ends. The objects we use are called “use objects”. The use objects in this case are the hammer, the wrench, the screwdriver, and the toolbox, all made out of Rice Krispies (see Appendix B, C, and D, and E respectively). I chose to use Rice Krispies because they have a shelf-life for which they are usable, and once this shelf-life has passed, they are no longer usable, in the sense that they should not or cannot be eaten. Once a box of Rice Krispies cereal has been opened, it must be eaten within a short time frame, otherwise it will go stale and is no longer an enjoyable experience to eat, as its famous snaps, crackles, and pops are reduced to soggy lumps. Alternatively, when Rice Krispies treats are not eaten right away, they become hard and stale, and will soon begin to decompose.
Part of Arendt’s thoughts on reification are that when Created Things are made in order to create other things, such as tools, they are able to survive both the labour and the consumption process (164). Traditionally, tools such as hammers, screwdrivers, and wrenches are created in order to either create something else, or to assist in the longevity of other objects, typically when used for repairs. The preservation of longevity is where the similarities of the use of traditional tools, and the use of the Rice Krispies tools, stops. Rice Krispies cereal is considered a breakfast meal and, as is common knowledge, humans need to eat in order to survive; the Rice Krispies contribute to the longevity of the human life, when eaten. The traditional tools themselves have an exceptionally long usage period, while Rice Krispies have a very short usage period. I chose to use the Rice Krispies to juxtapose the ideas of longevity and immortality, versus the quick rate of consumption; Rice Krispies in the form of hammers, screwdrivers, and wrenches is in itself a juxtaposition since they were created in likeness to tools built for longevity, but its medium was created for immediate usage and consumption.
Arendt says that art is in a state of semi-immortality, because it does not get used in the same ways that tools traditionally do, therefore allowing it to escape from the clutches of deterioration, which tools cannot do because they are used, or consumed, in everyday life. I chose to create tools out of food art to cross the boundaries of art and the tools of labour. Arendt claims that art is separate from the things that we use (use objects), and this creates a form of immortality of the art (187). But it creates a tension in Arendt’s theory if the art is created to be consumed.
The tools that I have created are completely non-functional, as is in the criterion of art by Arendt’s definition, but they lack the longevity or immortality of art, by the same definition. The questions I am raising here are, how can a Created Thing be both art and not-art at the same time? What does it do to art, if the artwork cannot be art, by its own definition? Does it reduce it to a state of nothingness or can we create an entirely new category for this hybrid?
We can push the limits of work and art set forth by Arendt by asking these questions. We can expand on her ideas to create and shape further understandings of theory as the world around us is changing.
Although there is much to be said about food art in line with other schools of theory and study such as ecology and sustainability, morality and ethics, politics, and aesthetics, there is not much said about food art and the human condition. Other artists have created depictions of the human condition through mediums such as paintings, novels and other forms of literature, and films, however I have been unable to find other works similar to my own.
Bibliography
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. 2nd ed.. University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Jagoda, Patrick. “Critique and Critical Making.” Modern Language Association, vol. 132, no. 2, 2017, http://www.mlajournals.org.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/doi/abs/10.1632/pmla.2017.132.2.356. Accessed 05 Dec. 2017.
Ratto, Matt. “Critical Making: Conceptual and Material Studies in Technology and Social Life.” The Information Society, vol. 27, no. 4, 2011, https://journals-scholarsportal- info.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/details/01972243/v27i0004/252_cmcamsitasl.xml. Accessed 01 Dec. 2017.
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
