Fermentation

The observation takes place within a quiet kitchen during late summer.

Several vessels have been arranged along a wooden work surface. Fruit has been prepared, measured, and transferred into containers whose contents are expected to change over time.

Unlike ordinary food preparation, the completed material is not intended to remain as it is.

The work depends upon transformation.

Drosophila melanogaster moves between the vessels, examining the changing material and the conditions surrounding it.

Fermentation begins with material that is already familiar.

Fruit, liquid, sugar, and other ingredients remain recognizable at the beginning of the process, yet their condition is expected to change.

The finished material cannot be understood solely by examining its initial state.

Time becomes part of the method.

Nothing about the process appears particularly dramatic.

The vessels remain in place.

The material changes gradually.

The observer is therefore required to recognize that inactivity does not necessarily mean that nothing is occurring.

Waiting becomes an active component of the practice.

Fermentation occupies an unusual position between preparation and decay.

The material is intentionally placed within conditions where transformation can occur, while those conditions are monitored closely enough to prevent the process from becoming uncontrolled.

The distinction depends upon attention.

The observer does not simply allow change to happen.

The observer creates circumstances in which a particular kind of change is expected.

What can be directly observed is Drosophila melanogaster attending to vessels containing prepared fruit undergoing gradual transformation.

The arrangement of vessels and materials suggests that the process is deliberate rather than accidental.

The significance of the observation lies in the relationship between preparation and waiting.

What cannot be established is the intended duration of the process, the exact method used, or how the completed material will ultimately be used.

What is seen is recorded. What is inferred remains identified as inference.

How is the beginning of fermentation recognized?

Which changes are considered desirable?

How frequently are the vessels inspected?

When does waiting become part of the work itself?

How is the completed material distinguished from material that has changed incorrectly?

Some practices produce their result through action.

Others require the observer to step away.

Fermentation belongs to the second category.

The work is established, then permitted to continue beyond the immediate reach of the person who began it.

Not all making requires a hand upon the material.