Response to Katie Compton’s 10,000 Bowls of Oatmeal Problem:
Oatmeal can often be regarded as a plain and uninteresting meal. For certain people, including me, it is one of my favorite breakfast options. The greatest property of oatmeal is its diversity and ability to mimic your favorite desserts. There is always one distinct element that makes or breaks the oatmeal. For me, it is a creamy flavor. Katie Compton uses an analogy to oatmeal to describe the issue with neglecting a key element to hook the viewer. In the visual sense, each oat could be generated differently every time, but without the ability to perceive the uniqueness of each bowl, the issue rises about whether viewers will truly be able to differentiate each generation. Oatmeal can have many different flavor profiles and combinations, but ultimately, it can become boring if there is no key flavor or element. Katie Compton pushes the question of how artists can produce work that can be perceptually unique.