Is consciousness real? Is it a substantive phenomenon?

If consciousness is real, is it kept in the mind? The brain?

Consider this...to a homo sapien like you and I grass is not food. Now consider a cow. A cow eats grass. The physical relationship between the cow and the grass is what makes it food. We don't eat grass, so if you asked a human, grass is not food. But to the cow it clearly is. Therefore the quality of being food-like comes from neither the cow, nor the grass, nor the human. It comes from the process of the cow finding the grass and eating it.

Does consciousness work in the same way?

Is consciousness purely a social construct?  

Can you measure a thought? An idea? A memory? A feeling? Can you point it out in space/time, plot it on a chart? What about consciousness? Can it be directly, physically observed?

Is consciousness functional or substantive? Is it located within the social world, or the brain?