Tag: Arts

brain · creativity · design · neuroscience · play

Creating new designs through play, brain waves

Beth Kelley

Very cool video from B-Reel, Scandinavian furniture brand Varier and Oslo agency DIST Creative, on a project that involved creating fabric designs based on brain waves, specifically the brain waves of children playing and exploring:

Design based on kids' brainwaves.

Using some of the findings from its Mind Scalextricsexperiment, B-Reel used a headset to measure the brain waves of three children using Varier’s Balans chair. (The chair is designed to promote circulation and extended activity, which is claimed to leadi to better concentration and overall well-being).

It then used a custom built data visualization engine to turn the recordings into a pattern that could be printed as upholstery for the chair. As well as creating image patterns to reflect the changes in the children’s brain activities, the engine engine also used graphic presets corresponding to the children’s personal interests and took inspiration from patterns ranging from classic tapestries to pop-art and contemporary design.

Varier Furniture is featuring the project on its website as well as at international Furniture and Design Fairs.

Originally from Creativity Online, where you can also see the video.

behavior · creativity · environment · happiness · play · youtube

My thesis, summed up in a two-minute video

Beth Kelley1 Comment

After working for literally YEARS on my Master’s thesis (I’m still SO excited that I graduated this past quarter and am an official M.A.), I come across this video, which pretty much sums up my years of work in two and a half minutes. It showcases two students from Parkour Visions in Seattle, WA, explaining why they like parkour, mostly because it lets them play again. Upon seeing this I had two thoughts: “well done” and “dang!”

My parkour buddies also showed me this video recently, which in approximately 9 minutes explains the whole reason I wanted to do my thesis in the first place. The video is actually a pitch for funding a documentary called “Seriously!” which interviews a lot of play experts on the subject of play, including many people I cited in my thesis, and why play is important for our survival. In this case, my reaction was wanting to send it to my thesis advisers and scream: “See? See?!”

Ugh.

Anyway, it is a very nice video, so enjoy:

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behavior · community · psychology

How Reading Fiction Boosts Empathy – Culture – GOOD

Beth Kelley2 Comments
Complete set of the seven books of the "H...
Reading fiction can improve empathy. Image via Wikipedia

I had a great vacation – I got out into nature, I slept in (some mornings when I wasn’t out looking for wildlife), and I even read a little bit. Turns out the reading was good for me in more ways than one; reading is not only relaxing, some studies find it improves empathy:

Shira Gabriel and Ariana Young, both from the psychology department at the University of Buffalo, gave 140 undergraduate students passages to read from either the Harry Potter series or the Twilight series. Afterward, the students were asked how much they related to the characters in the novels. Gabriel and Young found that despite the fact that both the stories rely heavily on otherworldly magic and mysticism, the undergrads felt a real affinity for the characters. “[T]he study found that participants who read the Harry Potter chapters self-identified as wizards, whereas participants who read the Twilight chapter self-identified as vampires,” they wrote. ”

And “belonging” to these fictional communities actually provided the same mood and life satisfaction people get from affiliations with real-life groups. Books provide the opportunity for social connection and the blissful calm that comes from becoming a part of something larger than oneself for a precious, fleeting moment.”

Raymond Mar, a professor at York University, has also noticed the link between reading and empathy. In a study of children, Mar found that the more a child reads, the likelier she is to be able to understand the emotions of others.

more via How Reading Fiction Boosts Empathy – Culture – GOOD.

Some of my reading wasn’t very empathy inducing, although that may be because I was reading the news rather than fiction.

What books do you recommend that may help with empathy? They don’t have to be empathic necessarily, just tell a good story about someone.

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architecture · behavior · culture · design · environment · happiness · Nature

Seattle has too many bleak public spaces | Crosscut.com

Beth Kelley
Seattle Skyline view from Queen Anne Hill.
View of Seattle's city skyline. In such a gorgeous part of the U.S., Seattle itself is lacking in pretty public spaces. Image via Wikipedia

In case y’all hadn’t noticed yet, I’m a huge proponent of utilizing public space for community use and creating an overall aesthetically pleasing environment for people. Cities have one of the greatest opportunities to provide that for their citizens. So I was thrilled when I read this article in Crosscut Magazine arguing the same thing, specifically for my hometown of Seattle.

Our landscape-oriented mindset should have been good preparation for what we need in the densifying city now, which is more design intelligence given to the open spaces between buildings — plazas, parklets, and awkward leftovers like the places under freeway overpasses. The more the air space around us becomes stuffed with architecture, the more acutely we need the relief of thoughtfully landscaped open spaces on the ground. Arguably, these spaces are more important in the built environment than most buildings because they’re public — people use them.

Or if they’re emotionally cold, dreary, or austere, people don’t use them, which is the case with a number of Seattle’s precious open spaces. On one of our desperately rare sunny spring days this month, I visited about a dozen open spaces in the dense city and found — no surprise — the bleak ones practically unused and the beautiful ones full of life. What is surprising is that we’re not demanding more graceful, humane, imaginative design — and raising hell over trends such as Seattle Parks and Rec’s inexplicable new fascination with concrete and gravel.

The article goes on to provide examples and suggest different fixes for a couple of spaces. More via Why does Seattle have so many bleak public spaces? | Crosscut.com.

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behavior · brain

We are music-powered beings

Beth Kelley1 Comment

It is amazing the power that music has on us. It can make us happy, cry, soothe depression, calm, enliven, and make us dance like idiots.

Babies are not immune to this, in fact there are some very famous dancing babies. Who can forget the kiddo dancing to Beyonce from a year ago?

Turns out this inclination to move and wiggle to music starts at an incredibly early age. NPR’s Science Friday showcased a study where babies where set up with headphones piping in very danceable beats. Infants would spontaneously start dancing to the beat. Sure, they weren’t all that great at it, but as the scientists point out, they’ve only been using their muscles for a few months here, so cut them some slack!

Click here to see the video

But I have never seen such a good demonstration of the power of music as with this little guy. Watch what happens right around 30 seconds and then again at 2:10.

children · cognition · education · family · learning · technology

Using the Internet as a Learning (and play) Tool

Beth Kelley

Great article from Cory Doctorow and BoingBoing:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/02/how-i-use-the-intern.html

…my 2.5-year-old daughter and I use my computer as part of our imaginative play and storytelling, using YouTube searches, Flickr image searches, paper story books, toys, and trips around town to play and explore.

Now that she’s more active, she usually requests something – often something from YouTube (we also download her favourite YouTube clips to our laptops, using deturl.com), or she’ll start feeding me keywords to search on, like “doggy and bunny” and we’ll have a look at what comes up. It’s nice sharing a screen with her. She points at things in her video she likes and asks me about them (pausable video is great for this!), or I notice stuff I want to point out to her.

But the fun comes when we incorporate all this into our storytelling play…

This is great that Doctorow is using YouTube as scaffolding to teach his daughter, rather than just plopping her in front of the TV. The interaction is the most important part here, and it’s great that he’s incorporating digital media into the lesson plan, encouraging her to think critically even at a little itty-bitty age. 🙂

community · environment · Nature

Reclaiming urban space for community use

Beth Kelley
The recently restored Seward Park Inn, Seward ...
The recently restored Seward Park Inn, Seattle, WA. Image via Wikipedia

I love hearing about citizens taking the initiative to clean up parks, fix up land, and give places names as a sign of ownership for the land, not as in a “I OWN YOU” kind of ownership, but a “I am responsible for you” kind of way.

A group of park-lovers in Seattle took it upon themselves to clean up Seward Park and give the different trails and landmark names.

Knute Berger of blog Crosscut writes that he and a bunch of his friends “floated the idea of naming many of citys unnamed features, including alleys, street ends, trails, and other urban features that are yet unnamed on maps.

“There are many reasons to do this. One is reclaiming urban spaces, like alley ways; another is recognizing more than a centurys worth of life and accomplishment of Seattleites in the years since the streets were named. Yet another is to take the opportunity to include more indigenous names for natural and city features.

“A naming project is currently underway at Seward …”

more via The Crosscut Blog.

Mental · psychology

Design*Sponge best of: Offices

Beth Kelley

Grace Bonney at Design*Sponge is creating a design book, but as a business owner also appreciates the need for your own creative/productive space. Hence, two blog posts (and hopefully book sections) dedicated to creating spaces that are good for productivity and innovation:

…there are over 20 amazing offices in this final group, ranging from simple, minimalist desks to colorful offices that will wake you up with bright paint and hot pink piping. Visit here for Part One.

[image above: i love the matisse print above d*s editors (and horne owners) ryan and alissa’s beautiful home office in philadelphia]

[image above: i love all the green (and the cute paris print!) in julie murphy’s home (founder of jack and lulu)]

more at DesignSponge » Blog Archive » sneak peek best of: offices part two.

architecture · Social · technology · writing

Booklust of the week

Beth Kelley

I am a little worried it was supposed to be released more than a year ago and I can’t find any updates, but…

Play All Day documents a collection of the most vibrant, stimulating and engaging design products and concepts for children. This book sets a new standard of design for children with fascinating examples of innovative and well-designed toys, playgrounds and play environments, room decorations, wall coverings, furniture and kindergarten architecture. In addition to these products, it also presents illustration and photography as well as new and original ideas offering playful solutions that talented designers and creative parents are designing for and with their kids. It is an inspiring reference for design-savvy parents and other professionals.

more at the Play All Day publisher’s website.