The colour of consumption

The colour of WHSmith, crammed with pinks and greens and pale blues, special offers on sharpies and competition prize offers to see one direction. JD Sports tiers of shocking pink and electric blue trainers. Nearby the rather more spaced out, new two storey glass fronted Top Shop has a cooler selection: gold, grey the occassional red amidst the aqua glass container.

How are all these choices made? Who decided what makes cheap and cheerful, what says austerity, shall we be lured in by a tasteful exterior to an aladdins cave of multi sensory visual noise inside Churchill Square? 

the colour of north street

If you take the words and the branding out of the hight street is it less demanding? Might this be the same for people who speak another language or cannot read? Are we so familiar with the brands we can tell what they are just by the colour combinations?

words on north street

High streets bombard us with information. A combination of stimuli: verbal, colour, branding. Naturally, we can filter out as much as we choose. But perhaps this take some effort. Is it any accident that travel agents choose to be located in especially hectic city centre streets? Offering us an escape route?

the colour of whs

Shop windows. Take the words and the brands out and there is often a predominance of red. The colour of attraction, danger, alert? But also bargains, sales. The reds provoke an intuitive response to attract our attention. These environments have a powerful impact. How does colour work on our subconscious? Abstract artists at the beginning of the last century became preoccupied with the colour shape and arrangement of visual images in the belief that: " Colour is a means of exerting direct influence on our soul" Kandinsky,1912

lull

When the noise becomes unbearable, stand back for a moment and listen. The shape of these wall mounted cups creates a sound similar to the experience of listening to the sea in shells. 

reverse cctv

Why not use the ever present and increasingly affordable technology of cctv for beneficial effects? Live streaming of rural locations as a temporary installation in empty shops, could provide us with a chance to contemplate nature. A less demanding view that could have restorative effects and enable us to enjoy the city centre more.?

manzini sustainable everyday

After all this thinking about overstimulation in commercial city centres,  I started reading Ezio Manzini who captures the issues of the inherent stress in consumerism:

" Well-being has two dimensions: the material and the non-material. Anyone who buys food and prepares dinner has the material satisfaction of filling his or her stomach and the non-material stisfaction of having cooked a particular dissh or enjoyed good company. Non-material satisfaction, however, requires deliberate attention for use and enjoyment. Having too many things makes time for non-material pleasure shrink; an overabundance of options can easily diminish full satisfaction; whoever wants to optimise his overall satisfaction must limit his quantitive aspirations. " Manzini, E and Jegou, F 'Sustainable Everyday: Scenarios of Urban Life' (2003)

change your view

Based on the idea that contemplating natural environments has a restorative effect, I am proposing to create installations that could be used in empty city centre shops using imagery or cctv footage of natural environments.  I had a positive response from Matt Easteal of Brighton and Hove Council Environmental Improvement Team,  who explained the purpose of the large scale images they have been positioning on disused buildings. They are intended to combat vandalism and graffiti. Passers by agree that they enjoy looking at them: an alternative to the hoardings but not an advertisment.

Stand still, step up, mark one

One way to have a moments respite, to escape the claustrophobia of the crowded environment is to step up. First trial of a step to nowhere, somewhere to stand still, elevate yourself , a look out post . We realised that the surface area makes you stand up straight, not so relaxing. Also that maybe you need something to lean on.

 

City Centre Sounds

I  have been asking people in Brighton what they like and dislike about city centre sounds :

Not surprisingly, they find the sound of horns, sirens, shouting, car alarms, traffic, construction work uncomfortable and irritating.

They prefer the sound of the sea, the birds. Basically when they need a break they go to the seafront or the pavilion gardens.

Are there ways to change irritating noises into something less uncomfortable? It turns out that the same principle that makes it sound as though you can hear the sea in a shell applies to cup  shaped objects held at a slight distance from the ear. Apparently the lounder the ambient noise levels the louder the swooshing sound. Perhaps physical adaptations to urban environments could create listening posts..

Wearable sound baffles

Is it possible to use the principles of anechoic chambers to absorb sound in clothing? Could pleating and smocking techniques that use soft warm materials but also increase surface area, dampen surrounding sound and improve ability to have a conversation in noisy environments?

Rob Oldfield currently doing a PhD in 3D sound at Salford university advises:"Urban soundscapes often have quite a lot of low frequency sound but it is usually the higher frequency (1000Hz-10000Hz) sound that we humans find the most annoying (that's because they are the frequencies similar to speech and we are most sensitive to them).Concentrate on trying to make the higher frequencies lower because these are more annoying anyway (alarms, whistles, screeching breaks)

Your idea of the pleating/smocking is really good because this is a good way to absorb sound (usually if you imagine something that is good for keeping you warm/insulating, it will also be good at absorbing sound too) So you could be on to a winner with that, thicker material and bigger pleats will be better for lower frequencies and will absorb more sound in general. "

measuring sound

Advice on testing efficacy of baffles to cut out certain frequencies includes a number of methods:

1. Play white noise and use sound meter to measure sound levels from a microphone close to the ear, with and without the baffles
2. Play white noise and record with and without baffles. Import into Logic Pro to view frequencies that are affected

this head size screen in the sound booth at university of brighton is lined with acoustic foam to further dampen sound for voice recording purposes. Can this be transposed to a portable/wearable accessory to make it easier to speak in noisy cafe environments?

books make libraries quiet

Jane Fordham pointed out to me the other day that it is the books that make libraries quiet. A complete self fulfilling physical effect. You need quiet in order to read. If you have enough books they create a physical equivalent of an anechoic chamber, i.e. multiple non reflective surfaces that are also insulating. Think of all those remainder books that get pulped that could be used to build quiet places....

the poetry of moss

Investigating the potential and benefits of introducing small scale interventions of growth in urban environments has led to expert advice from the living roofs organisation. George Schenk sums up entirely what I have been thinking:

"a world more closely viewed in vignettes of landscape that we discover or plant for ourselves, is a world made more cosy. Mosses up close are large on fellowship. Nothing else of greenery is more companiable at the near edge of our universe."Schenk, G Moss Gardening, p105

Dont rush

Jacqui Chanarin told me about recent visitors to Japan where they are putting 'don't rush' signs up intended to influence crowd behaviour in commuter zones. The idea being that negotiating crowds could be easier and a less frustrating experience if everyone were more calm and careful. I found this one which apparently means " Don't rush or you will go round in circles"

noise

This  DEFRA  noise map shows the main route by road in and out of Brighton to the palace pier. The purple is the most noise 75 + dB(A)  (mainly roads) the green 0.00-54.9 dB (A)  is the least.

 The red patch 65.0-69.9 dB(A) (the steine ) despite being a large stretch of grass is surrounded by roads and on the high range for noise. 

moss

I have had some useful advice from Gary Grant Ecology Director at Aecom in response to my query about creating small scale installations to encourage moss in urban environments :

• "It is feasible but you will need to use north facing surfaces and channel rainwater across the surface
• In Japan people use ricewater and yoghurt to speed up the process of colonisation
• and try rough wood, sandblasted or similar, or hessian"

this is a first experiment for a channel that could be integrated into the shop window ledge to introduce a continuous line, an alternative view, leading to larger installations alongside public seating. 

cognitive benefits of natural environments

Perhaps unsurprisingly, recent research by Kaplan and Berman, psychologists at University of Michigan has found that a short urban walk can cause cognitive deficits compared to a walk in the park because natural settings do not require the same amount of cognitive effort. The concept of ART Attention Restoration Theory, suggests that immersion in nature may have a restorative effect (p21) Could small scale interventions - a glimpse of growth in unexpected places within the urban commercial environment have some of the same effects? Personal experience of comparing london Victoria to a rural walk would definitely support this. 

city sensory input colour

An anlysis of the distribution of colour in the same  200 yards in north street Brighton on monday looks like this : separation from the text, noise and people it looks less demanding ...

city information

A  sample of a record of text from shop fronts and displays of about 200 yds of North street Brighton on Monday looks like this : one aspect of information overload.