The complexity of soup

Let’s have a look in the kitchen of a famous cook: Michel Roux Junior. In this video he explains how to make a Beef Consommé Royale. Consommé is French for a very clear stock. It is a tasteful soup that does not have anything like vegetables or meat in it that make it turbid. The taste is complex but it has become a clear soup because the meat, bones and vegetables have been removed and it has been strained. It is ‘clarified’.

Clarifying soup in the kitchen is similar to what we will be doing with our images this module. We will be looking for complex aspects that need to be clarified. We will not make them simple, because then the ‘taste’ might become less. We would not want the result that our images look like soup but taste like salty water. We want star-chef rich but clear images!

Defining Complexity

Complexity is a prominent subject in many sciences and many definitions exist. In this course complexity is considered in relation to two other concepts: simplicity and clarity.

• Complex is a situation with interplay of several relevant aspects.
• Simple is a situation without interplay of several relevant aspects.
• Clear is a situation without confusion or ‘cloudiness’.

So, this module we are going to focus on images that represent something complex in a clear way.