More Spooning in the Kitchen
Jeni Paay, Jesper Kjeldskov, Mikael B. Skov, Kenton P. O'Hara · VBN Forskningsportal (Aalborg Universitet) · 2012
Cooking together is an important part of everyday life. In cooking with others we share not only the experience of creating the meal, but a social event in which people enhance their relationships through shared stories, relating daily happenings and discovering new ideas about food preparation from each other. In this study we explore the human-food interaction by analyzing peoples daily cooking practices through a digital ethnography on YouTube videos of people “cooking together” in their kitchens. From an analysis of F-formations of social encounters in the kitchen, we map interaction patterns that occur during cooking, leading to the identification of the “spooning” configuration – a close-up view over the cooks shoulder - as an important part of the human-food interaction. We will use understanding gained from this process to design kitchen technologies that support meaningful and positive social and food experiences – specifically supporting people to cook together at the same time, but in different places.