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.

city observations

Parin Shahs use of watercolour to document indian urban life offer an other way of seeing what is so familiar we are already filtering it out.