In what ways can cooking be studied as an arts-based research method, integrating sound, movement, and sensory composition?

Cooking as an Intermodal Art Form

Prompt:

I’m cooking, and the rhythmic chopping of vegetables turns into flowing musical notes, steam swirls upward, forming abstract paintings in the air, and the ingredients transform into vibrant brushstrokes on a canvas.

Cooking (Visual Art + Music + Movement)

Visual: Selecting ingredients based on color, texture, and presentation.
Sound: The rhythm of chopping, sizzling, and stirring creates natural percussive patterns.
Movement: The choreography of reaching, mixing, and plating food involves spatial awareness and repetition.

Research Problem:

Cooking is often treated as a routine task rather than an intermodal act that blends rhythm, sensory experience, and creative expression. Some think that there shoudl be more research on how cooking can function as a therapeutic or research-based expressive arts process.

Research Questions:

How does the movement, rhythm, and tactile engagement of cooking contribute to emotional regulation and sensory integration in expressive arts therapy?
In what ways can cooking be studied as an arts-based research method, integrating sound, movement, and sensory composition?

Marie Howe - What the Living Do (Excerpt)

Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there.
And the Drano won’t work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up

waiting for the plumber I still haven’t called. This is the everyday we spoke of.
It’s winter again: the sky’s a deep, headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through

the open living-room windows because the heat’s on too high in here and I can’t turn it off.
For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, the bag breaking,

I’ve been thinking: This is what the living do.

Research starts from the way meaning is made as we conduct our everyday activities.

November Idyll: After the still life
Leviticus 7:12-15

Above the grain field stubble
a lift of cranes

like a great table cloth
shaken

—David Lee (2007)

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse