Month: June 2021

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Securing Venues To Test My Ideas In

Obstacles In Securing A Testing Venue

At present, the largest challenge facing my project is in securing venues in which I can test the ideas I have developed so far in my project, through my work with biophilic and biomimetic experts, hospitality professionals and customers. Throughout my project I have worked with hospitality professionals to gather knowledge and develop ideas and these individuals have been very helpful in answering questions I have and adding to the development of more beneficial concepts. However, none of these contacts that I have made in the hospitality industry have been able to provide a space in which I can test my ideas as of yet.

Therefore, I have continually spent time contacting other hospitality businesses that serve food and drink in the hope I may find a space that is interested in my work and happy to allow me to test my ideas, in whatever scale they will allow. This endeavour took a back seat over the last week due to my illness, but its is a venture I am looking to put at the forefront of my work over the next week, as it is my most pressing obstacle to overcome.

I had a beneficial chance encounter at a pop-up restaurant the other week, called JOY in Notting Hill, which is focused upon sustainability and incorporates vast natural planting in their outdoor terrace. Whilst at the restaurant I met the manager of the pop-up and briefly presented him with my ideas for my project. The manager was very interested in my project and gave me his contact details, which was very promising and exciting as they are moving pop-up sites in July and so this may provide a brilliant opportunity to test ideas in a fresh site for them. I have since emailed the manager and had no further response, but I will attempt to contact him again once we get into July and I see they have moved to their new site.

Other Ways Of Testing

As a result of the issues I am facing in gaining a testing venue, I have begun to try and think of other ways to test my ideas.

Dinner Party:

Initially I have considered testing on a smaller scale in the form of a dinner party. The dinner party would involve presenting a certain cuisine such as seafood to lets say 6 people and projecting visuals of ocean seascapes along with accompanying sounds and candles of seaside smells. Then I would test how the individuals connection in nature changed from the survey at the start, during and end of the meal. The measure of connection may be conducted using simple self report questions, possibly utilising emoticons to demonstrate emotional states, as this is an easier way for participants to record their connection rate then the complex and lengthy connection to nature academic measures, such as the Inclusion fo Nature in Self. There is also academic rigour in simple emoticon self report measures, such as those utilised in airports which I discovered from Kristina Libby’s input in my panel discussion. Additionally, I further researched the validity of this measure through the works of Lassen et al. (2020) to discover its success.

However, testing in the setting of a dinner party like this isn’t very conducive to a real world experience. The participants would most likely be fiends of mine which would limit their objectivity on the project, as well as there being a very small sample size possible in a dinner party setting if I were to host it in my flat. Therefore, testing in a dinner party setting like this is as a last resort at present.

Restaurants and Cafes of Museums and Art Spaces:

In attempting to explain how I would display the visuals and create an immersive experience through my idea of incorporating biophilic design with technology; I found myself referring back to the recent surge in immersive art exhibits that I have seen popping up around London as examples of a similar experience that I wish to create in a hospitality setting. So, when I utilised the same method of explanation when talking to Richard recently, accompanied with my ongoing struggle of gaining a testing venue. Richard pointed out that if these art spaces already host similar technology to that I wish to utilise in my project and most art spaces have some kind of hospitality space which serves food and drink; why don’t I attempt to test my ideas in these spaces?

For me this was a big breakthrough moment and simply an angle I had completely overlooked. Consequently, my next task is to uncover suitable spaces hosting such immersive art exhibitions and that have hospitality facilities; and to them approach them to ask if it would be possible to test my ideas with them. I am in the process of curating a list of venues that fit these criteria, which I will explore in greater depth in my blog over the coming days. My plan is to not only email and call these venues, but to actually visits some of the immersive experiences myself over the coming days to hopefully be able to meet the people running the venue and form a personal bond with them. I also wish to gain inspiration from these immersive experiences for my project and to push to boundaries of what may be possible in the realm of technobiophilia.

Reflection:

Art spaces may prove very beneficial in testing the technology side of my concepts, but I am still keen to consider the more physical ideas I have around biophilic design and how they can be utilised to create dynamic spaces. Therefore, I will continue my quest in contacting hospitality venues to test in, as well as the art spaces which also host hospitality settings.

Bibliography

Lassen, N., Goia, F., Schiavon, S. and Pantelic, J., (2020) “Field investigations of a smiley-face polling station for recording occupant satisfaction with indoor climate.” Building and Environment, 185, p.107266.

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Collage Expressing My Ideas

Over the past week my progress in securing a testing venue, as well as developing my online sharing group has been halted due to illness. However, over this time I tried to continue doing what I could to progress my project. This work partly resulted in developing a type of mood board in the form of collages to present my current trains of thought. The first of which you can see below.

I began making my first collage thinking about what it is that I perceive nature to be. I considered natural forms and the organic spirit that I feel fully encapsulates nature. From this line of thought the above collage resulted which I feel demonstrates nature in a variety of forms, but with the theme of organic, free forming and dynamic examples of the natural world.

After developing my first collage I reflected upon what I had created and this led me into thinking about how nature in typically expressed through art. I thought of the changes I have observed taking shape in how nature in expressed in art simply through my day to day life and so I researched further around this. I studied paintings of nature this being observational or abstract works, as well as sculptures positioned back in natural spaces such as parks. In this research and line of thinking I developed the collage you can see below. I then compared my findings of how I see nature to be raw, organic and evolving in my first collage and how many artist impressions of nature perhaps move away from this dynamic and organic way of the natural world, in my second collage.

Therefore, creating these collages helped me to refine and demonstrate the gap that I wish to target through applying technology to develop immersive, natural experiences through my project. I wish to bridge the gap between the raw natural world and the collective artists’ view of nature by creating a form of instillation that showcases the organic, dynamic way of nature and making this an immersive experience; but allowing people to observe and experience this in their own way. For instance, creating a large projection of nature accompanied by sounds and smells of that scene can help to present the raw forms of nature and evoke the senses in hospitality businesses, without physically being in nature. Such an experience will evoke the benefits of biophilic environments; whilst also being presented as an art instillation which moves the artist impression of nature to be a more immersive one which is closer to that of experiencing the natural world itself.

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Technobiophilia

Technobiophilia: nature and cyberspace, By Sue Thomas

Thomas coined the term technobiophilia, founded in her discovery that the utilisation of nature metaphors in internet culture was the result of biophilia (Thomas, 2013).

Technobiophilia – the innate attraction to life and lifelike processes as they appear in technology (Thomas, 2013).

Even through the crowds of technology facing the modern world, we are still drawn to nature and incorporating nature in the technological innovations in our lives. We even term technological developments after accepts of nature, such as storing data ‘in the cloud’ or your computer ‘getting a bug’ (Barreiros et al., 2018).

In the book Thomas (2013) states that technobiophilia practises and artefacts contribute to wellbeing via a tech-nature balance (Thomas, 2013). However, looking to critically analyse this finding, I wonder if utilising technology to connect with nature could produce the same benefits or even increased benefits, than incorporating natural design through standard Biophilic design such as planting, colour, textures, sounds etc. In summary, if we incorporate nature in technology, do we get the same wellbeing benefits from interacting with nature in this way or are the benefits slightly lowered or even heightened?

Relating This New Knowledge Into My Project

If technology does provide similar levels of benefits as more traditional or standard biophilic schemes, there is a large potential to utilise technology in my project. Technology could be utilised to develop a method of implementing nature into hospitality spaces in a fully immersive and easily changeable manner. For instance, natural scenes accompanied by their soundscapes and scents could be shown in restaurants instead of standard art work. Of course there is the cost element of this application to consider, as the technology needed may be expensive. However, if done on a rental basis of the technology in a trail to prove its efficacy and then if the concept proves value, an investment could be made by businesses into the needed technology.

This link of utilising technology in my project directly relates to key discussions had in my panel discussion with the biophilic experts. It was raised that technology is currently overlooked a lot in biophilic design, with designers falling into the trap of thinking that technology and nature need to be kept separate. Additionally, in the panel the vast importance of creating dynamic and changing spaces has on the success of continuously attracting customers to spaces, as many shames require refurbishment after a few years in order to modernise and keep customers engaged. Technology if successfully utilised in the way I am envisaging could create changeable, dynamic and evolving spaces that fully immerses customers in nature and consequently improving their wellbeing by re-connecting them with nature. Creating such spaces not only addresses the key points raised in my expert discussion, but also the needs of the hospitality professionals I have spoken to throughout the course of my project so far. I have learnt that hospitality spaces are generally receptive to including nature in their spaces, but they cannot afford large scale refurbishments nor can the afford to be closed for the time these refurbishments need to take place. Therefore, utilising technology which can be easily implemented into existing spaces or even utilise some of the existing technology they already have, such as speakers, could help to create an immersive natural experience in the space without obstructing the business and instead attract greater customers in.

Delving deeper in Thomas’s work around technobiopilia, it becomes apparent that she focuses on how technology could be utilised to enhance our experiences of nature or how nature can be brought more into our lives by technology via mobile tech such as smart phones, apps or wearables (Thomas, 2020). She wishes to develop a way of measuring the benefits to wellbeing that living a technobiophilic lifestyle can have. For example, an app or wearable tech that can measure heart rate changes based on different environments people are in (Thomas, 2020). Suggesting, my idea of developing immersive natural spaces may be a new and unusual take on her concept.

Reflections – the breakthrough moment

I feel that delving deeper into technobiophilia and looking at how to utilise technology in a beneficial way to connect people with nature has really been a breakthrough moment in my work. I believe trying to tackle re-connecting people to nature from this angle is so exciting and currently I can’t find it being done like this in any hospitality spaces which is such a groundbreaking thing for me. So far I have mainly been looking at new ways to combine design ideas that are partially out in the general field of biophilic design; but, this avenue feels new and even slightly liberating!

Next Steps:

I am looking to get in contact with Sue them stop discuss these concepts further over the coming week. I believe she was actually invited into class as a part of the guest speaker project so hopefully she will also be willing to assist in my work.

My big task over the coming weeks is to secure venues to begin testing my concepts in. I have a possible contact of a hospitality manager in Edinburgh, who seems keen but is yet to confirm if this keenness is more a reflection of their kindness. I also have contacts I have built through LinkedIn and Facebook groups that are hospitality managers, who I am reaching out to work with. However, last night I actually met a hospitality manager for the restaurant JOY at Notting Hill who seemed very interested in my work. I have been in contact with him today and I am hopeful something may come of that connection.

Bibliography

Barreiros, C., Veas, E. and Pammer, V., (2018) “Bringing nature into our lives.” In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 99-109). Springer, Cham.

Thomas, S., 2013. Technobiophilia: Nature and cyberspace. A&C Black.

Thomas, S. (2020) “Technobiophilic Design Challenges for Developers” https://suethomasnet.wordpress.com/whatistechnobiophilia/designchallenges/

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Testing My Video Intervention

In order to test the video intervention I developed to engage hospitality businesses in my project, I posted the video along with a series of prompts in 8 hospitality groups on Facebook and another group targeted at hospitality professionals on LinkedIn.

Reflection:

I am yet to receive responses to the video in this manner and so I am adopting another approach of sending the video along with the prompts directly to hospitality professionals that I have either connected with on LinkedIn or Facebook, or individuals who I have found their email through the internet.

I have also recently been passed on the contact information, by Leonardo who took part in my panel discussion, for Stefania Desole who is a manager of three restaurants in Edinburgh. She has more than 20 years of experience in this sector and so I will be getting in touch with her over the coming days.

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Panel Discussion – Testing Intervention 1

Today at 1pm I held my first panel discussion intervention with 4 key stakeholders. The speakers at the discussion ranged from all across the world and provided great insights into their experiences of utilising biophilic design principles alongside how they feel biophilia and biomimetics could be applied in hospitality businesses. A live audience was invited to view and take part in the discussion, as I posted the link in 7 different hospitality groups that I am a part of across Facebook and LinkedIn. However, unfortunately there were no live viewers to the discussion. Although, comments to the upload on YouTube are open and I have welcomed people to comment if they view the recording over the coming days and I can pass their questions onto the experts.

The Speakers Included:

Williem van Bolderen – Based in Finland, Founding partner of Studio Puisto architecture firm which focuses upon hospitality.

Leonardo Binetti – Based in Italy, associate lecturer at Edinburgh Napier university teaching in biomimetic materials.

Rajalakshmi Iyer – Based in Singapore, founder of Deeproots design and living products – specialising in exterior and interior landscaping as well as biophilic products.

Kristina Libby – Based in America, worked on biophilic projects including designing mindful offices which are dynamic and more recently developing a covid memorial project which utilises flower to develop organic, sacred spaces for people.

Please follow the link below to view the full recording of the panel discussion:

https://youtu.be/UHZitRLj1bQ

Note: consent was gained from all parties to record and post this video onto the YouTube page I have developed as a part of Nature. In.

Key Takeaways From The Discussion

  • Looking at the micro level of spaces rather than the macro which is studied by the majority of designers due to the macro level having greater impact
    • It was discussed that small applications of nature such as green artworks or centre pieces, even sustainable cutlery are certainly better than nothing, but the impact they can have on an individuals wellbeing is vastly reduced than if design is implemented at macro level
  • The examination of dynamic spaces
    • Developing Biophilic spaces that evolve around you, just as nature grows and changes around you.
    • For example, removing or adding plants or soft furnishings in a spaces periodically or to fit with the changing of the seasons (obviously changes with the seasons does require a more longitudinal study than can be achieved in the scale of this masters).
    • This idea feeds into another topic we touched on of creating spaces that are in a constant state of evolution.
  • The importance of sound, scent and movement
    • Raji shared how she has utilised the movement of air through spaces at certain times such as 7am to start the day and 4pm to signal it was time for a break. This was achieved by a steady breeze filling the space from the air vents at these times (which I found ingenious).
    • The use of bird sound and biomimetic lighting were also discussed to be utilised in this manner of marking out times in the day.
  • Creating spaces that evoke and create memories
    • If we can evoke emotions from spaces it helps people to engage more deeply with them. In order to do this most effectively you have to have a strong understanding of who will be utilising the spaces and what for.
    • We also discussed how hospitality spaces in particular are utilised to inspire and educate people. So, if these spaces promote sustainable behaviours and utilise biophilic principles, if people are inspired, they may even take such ideas home into their everyday lives.
  • Utilising technology to replicate the emotions of plants
    • How technology can be utilised to replicate states of nature through projections alongside scents and sounds in spaces was discussed. This allows us to embrace technology rather than fully reject it in the quest to achieve biophilic design.
  • Biomimicry in air ventilation
    • Leonardo raised the point of materials utilised in windows which mimic pinecones. Therefore, the material opens in the presence of certain gases in the air, just as pine cones do!
  • Measuring a connection to nature
    • Kristina spoke on the efficacy of the smiley face survey technique which has been applied in numerous settings, specifically in airports and how they have actually been found to produce very rich data. So, I may look into utilising such a system to gather customers data on biophilic designs, as self reporting survey techniques are very hard to get consumers to accurately complete after they have just had a hospitality experience.
    • Williem spoke on how I could create 2 or more models or even utilise one space without any biophilic designs and then add biophilia to the space and compare how people interact in the differing spaces; for instance where they sit first. I could observe via video how people interact with the space, as lots of our interactions and choices in nature are subconsious and so asking people to report on them may result in less rich data.

Reflections

Although the panel resulted in being predominately focused upon biophilic and biomimetic designers, rather than the equal balance of hospitality professionals and biophilic experts I initially desired to engage in the panel; I felt the discussion provided real insight into how valuable changes can be made in hospitality spaces to re-connect people with nature.

I think initially in creating this panel discussion I felt that hospitality workers and biophilic experts needed to be brought together to cohesively bridge the gap between the designs and what will be most beneficial to the specific businesses. However, I realise now that simply getting everyone together in one big discussion was almost the easier route out. After this experience I feel that it may be a more effective approach to discuss with each stakeholder group (the experts and the hospitality businesses) separately as they are quite different groups and they respond better to tailored approaches. Then I can collate the information from these discussion to take the feedback of the hospitality businesses and combine this with the feedback from the experts.

Therefore, I now need to engage further with hospitality workers, in ways in which will accommodate them and this largely meaning not being at fixed times, due to my experience trying to confirm hospitality workers for this panel discussion (see previous post). Although, I am still working on the details of precisely how I will target the hospitality businesses.

Next Steps

Looking to the future I now plan on utilising some of the ideas discussed in the panel to explore further and begin developing a series of very rough idea mock ups. I can then present these idea mock ups to hospitality businesses and ask if something along these Iines would work for them and how they may wish to adapt it to better suit their needs.

Specifially, I was really interested in the ideas of dynamic spaces that change or evolve as the customer returns to them. Therefore, keeping customers interested and engaged with the spaces but also strongly mimicking the organic sense of nature as it shapes around you. Subsequently, I am going to investigate this further through the coming weeks. Additionally, I was intrigued by the idea of embracing technology to develop biophilic experiences in spaces, rather than assuming it detracts from the natural and rejecting it. For instance, utilising projector screens in replacement for artwork, as well as soundscapes and smells to replicate the experience of being in the natural environment that is being shown. Thus, again I plan on looking into this further.

In terms of iterating this intervention, I may host another panel discussion once I have collaborated with hospitality businesses and conducted further secondary research to establish greater depth in my ideas which could then be discussed. In doing another panel discussion, I would certainly utilise images as prompts again as I felt that worked really well, but I would make my prompt questions more concise. I would also place greater emphasis on trying to engage a live audience which the panellists could answer questions from. I plan on doing that by confirming with individuals before hand that they would attend as audience members, rather than leaving it up to people interacting with my posting to view the panel.

Furthermore, I now plan on developing my intervention of an online sharing group where people can post pictures of applications of nature or natural features alongside a short comment stating why they like or dislike this. This will help to engage the my stakeholder group of hospitality customers which I am yet to deeply engage with.

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Difficulties Experienced in Establishing a Network of Hospitality Professionals

Over the past few weeks I have been actively trying to develop a network of hospitality professionals to engage in my project.

The main platforms I have utilised to gain these contacts have been Facebook through joining and becoming active participants in Facebook groups targeted at hospitality professionals. I have also joined hospitality groups on LinkedIn which are full of very useful and highly qualified contacts. Finally, I have utilised LinkedIn further by searching for hosiapilty professionals and contacting individuals who are involved in hospitality and asking them if they are interested in taking part in my work.

The predominate aim of reaching out to these hospitality professionals, at present was to gather participant speakers for my online panel discussion which is taking place later today (4th June) at 1pm. However, I have faced a problem in gathering hospitality professionals that work ‘ on the ground’ so to speak.

I was very keen to get some speakers involved who actively work in hospitality spaces that serve food and drink, so I could gather a real world view as to what may work in terms of natural applications in those spaces. But, I have faced the difficulty in accessing these individuals for a set timed panel discussion, due to their varying shifts for work and the majority of individuals not knowing their work rota util the week before. I know from my own experience working as a waitress that the rotas and timetabling can be put out rather last minute and be very flexible to change, and so I sympathise with them on this issue. In regard to my panel discussion however, this issue has meant that Simon Gardner in particular is no longer able to participate in the discussion, and neither is another hospitality worker I have been in contact with, Oliver Crawley who is an events manager.

Instead, I have managed to secure Williem van Bolderen, who is a founding partner of Studio Puisto architecture firm which focuses upon utilising Biophilic design in the development of hospitality spaces. Willem is highly regarded and will undoubtedly provide great insights for the discussion. Although, he is not a part of the ‘on the ground’ workers I initially considered targeting, I feel he will make a great addition to the team.

Reflection

Looking to the future and how to engage my ‘on the ground’ workers in hospitality, I will look towards methods that do not have to be conducted at a set time. But, rather the individuals can conduct the interventions at their own pace. This could even take the form of video submissions in response to prompts which could be compiled as a part of a larger instillation showcasing how ready hospitality spaces are to receive the change and what changes they would benefit from in terms of applications of nature.

Additionally, in the future I will initially place greater emphasis on engaging hospitality professionals, as I started out targeting biophilic and biomimetic experts first during this intervention. Having said that I certainly didn’t leave gathering hospitality professionally for the discussion to the last minute, as I have been trying to secure hospitality workers for several weeks. However, I do feel that it has been slightly easier to engage these experts in this kind of panel discussion, as it is something they are a lot more familiar with doing than hospitality professionals. Therefore, next time I will either change the format to one that hospitality professionals may be more comfortable engaging with, or I will simply place increased effort at the start of the project to engage hospitality professionals.