John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

Figure 54: ‘What’s Cooking Grandma?’ installation view (left) and ‘Grandma
Player’ (right) 2006. Human Beans
Human Beans claim that this democratisation of technology is fuelling the
development of new forms of literacy. Inspired by this they want to catalyse the
mass documentation of Grandmothers' cooking their own special recipes in
their own kitchens. To get things started they made recordings of
Grandmothers living in the Lancaster area and uploaded them to YouTube.
Shown alongside these films in the exhibition were non-functioning prototypes
of ‘Grandma Players’ (Figure 54, right) - a new kitchen appliance (based on a
modified jam jar). These were designed to record your Grandma's instructions
and the sound of her cooking - so you can play her back in your own kitchen and
cook along with Grandma.
Figure 55: ‘What’s Cooking Grandma?’ (left) and website (right) 2006. Human
Beans
‘What’s Cooking Grandma?’ was the fourth (equal) most-referenced piece by the
press from the exhibition. However, this work was featured in possibly the
highest profile references of all works as separate segments on CBC/Radio-
Canada’s ‘Freestyle’ and Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’. This work was the one work
in the exhibition that most surprised the other participating practitioners (33%)
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