Introduction:A space’s atmosphere is an important factor in how that space is experienced. In fact, festival visitors consider the atmosphere as the most important factor in how they experience a festival (Van Vliet 2012). Atmosphere is also what distinguishes physical shops from online web shops (Van Vliet, Moes & Schrandt 2015). Much research underlines the influence of atmosphere on cognitive and emotional processes. As early as 1956, research showed that an assessment of facial expressions in photographs depended on the atmosphere of the space in which the photos were viewed (Maslow & Mintz 1956). The importance of atmosphere inspired the search for ways to influence visitors and allowing them to react to, and even (co-)design, a space’s atmosphere – from museum spaces (Noordegraaf 2012) to urban spaces, from consciously-manipulated spaces to the now inevitable layer of digital information that has entered the public sphere (Mitchell 2005). Researchers have been studying the influence of atmosphere for decades, particularly through the lens of environmental psychology, which focuses on the interplay between humans and their environment (Mehrabian & Russell 1974; Steg, Van den Berg & De Groot 2012). A milestone in atmosphere research was the introduction of the concept of ‘atmospherics’ by Kotler (1973). From here, research into atmosphere mainly took place in the context of marketing research into consumer behaviour in shops and service environments such as restaurants, hotels, museums and festivals (Van Vliet 2014). The question here is whether these gathered insights contribute to understanding how atmosphere works in open public spaces.
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This investigation explores relations between 1) a theory of human cognition, called Embodied Cognition, 2) the design of interactive systems and 3) the practice of ‘creative group meetings’ (of which the so-called ‘brainstorm’ is perhaps the best-known example). The investigation is one of Research-through-Design (Overbeeke et al., 2006). This means that, together with students and external stakeholders, I designed two interactive prototypes. Both systems contain a ‘mix’ of both physical and digital forms. Both are designed to be tools in creative meeting sessions, or brainstorms. The tools are meant to form a natural, element in the physical meeting space. The function of these devices is to support the formation of shared insight: that is, the tools should support the process by which participants together, during the activity, get a better grip on the design challenge that they are faced with. Over a series of iterations I reflected on the design process and outcome, and investigated how users interacted with the prototypes.
Tienduizend idioten leert je hoe je goede theaterteksten schrijft. Maar stiekem is het ook een casestudy hoe we het creatieve proces kunnen versoepelen, versnellen en verdiepen, en over hoe het kunstonderwijs voor hybride kunstenaars er vandaag de dag uit zou kunnen zien. De titel Tienduizend idioten verwijst naar de talloze stemmen die in deze tijd in ons huizen wanneer we leven, schrijven en theatermaken. Je binnenstemmen leren te onderscheiden, ermee te spelen en razendsnel ertussen te schakelen, is de basis van het creatieve proces.Samen met De Tekstsmederij, katalysator voor vers gesmede Nederlandstalige theaterteksten nodigt HKU Lectoraat Performatieve Maakprocessen (jonge) makers, theaterschrijvers, acteurs, regisseurs, scenaristen, producenten… en eigenlijk ook alle andere professionals die in hun praktijk wel eens met schrijven en schrijvers te maken hebben uit voor deze middag. In gezamenlijkheid voeren we het gesprek over de noodzakelijkheid en onzin van klassieke theatertaal, over de (on)mogelijkheid van moderne verhalen en over wat er nodig is om aansprekende stukken te kunnen blijven ontwikkelen voor een jong en divers publiek. bestel je exemplaar via www.hku.nl/hkupress
