Tag: (U1/2/3) Analysis

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Literature – Benefits of Nature in Spaces

Benefits of Nature

Schertz et al., 2021:

The is a plethora of evidence demonstrating exposure to nature to create a more positive affective state (Schertz et al., 2021).

Schertz et al. (2021) unpack the different effects of nature based upon the mode in which it is delivered. For instance walking in nature, natural imagery and videos, or virtual reality. This aspect of the work is highly beneficial to my project, as these are methods I have and will utilise in the future. They identify aesthetic preferences for natural environments to be particularly important in impacting affective states.

The work of Schertz et al. (2021) also unpacks the use of nature in treating mood disorders, which again highlights the astonishing benefits and impacts nature-based experiences can have upon emotional states.

It is stated that people spend a disproportionate amount of time away from nature, by being indoors (Kahn et al. 2010).

Schertz et al. (2021) found that longer, more immersive natural experiences had the largest effects on mood, however, these interactions are not always possible. This also sits in line with my findings from my Herb Intervention, as participants left the interactions with nature needed to be longer to be improved, but the circumstances of the event didn’t allow for this.

It was also discovered that people often underestimate the benefits to their mood they will feel after interacting with nature (Nisbet and Zelenski, 2011). This further demonstrates the necessity for a community to share knowledge on the power and value of nature in spaces.

Another fascinating idea highlighted in the work of Schertz et al. (2021) comes from the work of Openlands who created ‘Get Outside’. This is an interactive map showcasing natural locations around Chicago, encouraging people to visit them. This is a riveting concept and one I will look to apply within my community as a starting activity, perhaps in the form of a map of natural spaces around London using Jauntly. Keep a lookout for future blog posts expanding and implementing this idea.

Houlden et al., 2018:

Houlden et al. (2018) state that nature improving mental wellbeing is undeniable and well researched. They go on to explore the evidence of greenspaces in association with mental health through quantitative research. They discovered greenspaces to have positive associations to mental wellbeing, this being strongest for hedonic wellbeing (see blog post: ‘Defining the measures to utilise in my project’).

(Critique)- The work of Houlden et al. (2018) looks at the power of green space on mental health through the lens of planning to look to including increased green spaces in planning development. Although this is very interesting to read, especially with my past work in urban planning for my geography degree, the planning framework isn’t relevant to my current project. The results showcasing the power of nature do however support my case for why nature needs to be brought into city spaces.

Kasap et al., 2021:

Kasap et al. (2021) explore the social and mental benefits of interacting with nature. They note nature to provide peaceful, supportive, and emotional pockets of solace.

They state that having connections with nature extends cognitive abilities through recharging attention learning capacities, memory, executive functioning, and improving creativity (Kasap et al., 2021).

Nature is also found to create a positive mood, boost psychological well-being and relaxation by reducing anxiety and stress (Kasap et al., 2021).

In social contexts, nature can aid social cohesion via improving behavior, perspective taking and creating social value orientation (Kasap et al., 2021).

Well-being can be improved through reduced stress, negative moods, depression, and anxiety via building connections to nature (Kasap et al., 2021).

It is shown that virtual reality experiences of nature are effective in aiding mental health (Scates et al., 2020; Reese et al., 2021; Yin et al., 2020)

Subsequently, utilising nature in spaces to promote and develop connections to nature can instill improved learning and cognition, mental health benefits and even aid the construction of more cohesive societies or neighborhoods (Kasap et al., 2021).

Shanahan et al., 2015:

Shanahan et al. (2015) explore the type and quantity of nature that is required to provide health benefits.

(Critique) – This research is again conducted under a city planning framework and so its conclusions around the dosage of nature aren’t suitable for the context of my work,as they relate to time spent in nature to the amount of green space/ nature that needs to be included in urban planning. However, my work focuses upon how to bring nature into city spaces through addressing existing spaces and structures.

Dosage of nature was defined by Barton and Pretty (2010) as a measure of time spent exercising in green environments. However other measures of dosage of nature have been utilised in ecological and health studies (Shanahan et al., 2015).

They discovered that urban nature can be utilsied to provide an impactful and cost-effective tool to reduce health risks. However, in order to activate this change, further research into the specific types and amount of nature required for each possible health outcome is required (Shanahan et al., 2015).

The work also provides the highly interesting and relevant fact that in 30 years’ time, 70% of the global population will live in cities  (World Health Organization, 2013). I found a slightly more updated statistic form the United Nations (2018) stating it is predicted that 68% of the global population will live in cities by 2050.

(Critique)- Shanahan et al. (2015) are unable to provide precise answers in their work as to the quantities or types of nature needed to initiative certain health benefits, making it very difficult to action their work without further studies on this topic being completed.

What I Learned:

  • Achieving aesthetics of natural environment is particularly important to impacting affective states and imporving emotional wellbeing (Schertz et al., 2021).
  • Longer, more immerisve natural experiences had the largest effects on mood, however these intercations are not always possible (Schertz et al., 2021).
  • Greenspaces have proven beenfits to mental wellbeing, especially hedonic wellbeing (Houlden et al., 2018)
  • 70% of the worlds population will live in cities in 22 years time (accurate figure taking the date the statistic was created into account) (World Health Organization, 2013).
  • People often underestaimate the benefits to their mood they will feel after interacting with nature (Nisbet and Zelenski, 2011)
  • People spend a disproportionate amount of time away from nature, by being indoors (Kahn et al. 2010).
  • Having connections with nature extends cognitive abilities through recharging attention learning capacities, memory, executive functioning, and improving creativity.Nature is also found to create a positive mood, boost psychological well-being and relaxation by reducing anxiety and stress (Kasap et al., 2021).
  • Nature can aid social cohesion via improving behavior, perspective taking and creating social value orientation (Kasap et al., 2021).
  • Well-being can be improved through reduced stress, negative moods, depression, and anxiety via building connections to nature (Kasap et al., 2021).
  • Utilising nature in spaces to promote and develop connections to nature can instill improved learning and cognition, mental health benefits and even aid the construction of more cohesive societies or neighborhoods (Kasap et al., 2021).
  • It is shown that virtual reality experiences of nature are effective in aiding mental health (Scates et al., 2020; Reese et al., 2021; Yin et al., 2020).

Reflections

Through this lit review around the benefits of nature, I have uncovered some incredibly compelling and intriguing information that I am going to implement in creating content for my community to inform around the power of biophilic design. For example, that 70% of the world’s population will soon live in cities, or that people underestimate the power nature can have upon their mood, or how Openlands was utilised to create interactive maps of nature.

Bibliography

Houlden, V., Weich, S., Porto de Albuquerque, J., Jarvis, S. and Rees, K., (2018). ‘The relationship between greenspace and the mental wellbeing of adults: A systematic review.’ PloS one, 13(9), p.e0203000.

Kahn Jr, P.H., Ruckert, J.H., Severson, R.L., Reichert, A.L. and Fowler, E., (2010) ‘A nature language: An agenda to catalog, save, and recover patterns of human–nature interaction.’ Ecopsychology, 2(2), pp.59-66.

Kasap, E.Z., Ağzıtemiz, F. and Ünal, G., (2021). ‘Cognitive, mental and social benefits of interacting with nature: A systematic review.’ Journal of Happiness and Health, 1(1), pp.16-27.

Nisbet, E.K., Zelenski, J.M. and Murphy, S.A., (2011). ‘Happiness is in our nature: Exploring nature relatedness as a contributor to subjective well-being.’ Journal of Happiness Studies, 12(2), pp.303-322.

Reese, G., Kohler, E., & Menzel, C. (2021). Restore or get restored: The effect of control on stress reduction and restoration in virtual nature settings. Sustainability, 13(4), 1995.

Scates, D., Dickinson, J. I., Sullivan, K., Cline, H., & Balaraman, R. (2020). Using nature-inspired virtual reality as a distraction to reduce stress and pain among cancer patients. Environment and Behavior, 52(8), 895–918.

Schertz, K.E., Meidenbauer, K.L. and Berman, M.G., (2021). ‘Understanding the Affective Benefits of Interacting with Nature.’ In Nature and Health (pp. 7-22). Routledge.

Shanahan, D.F., Fuller, R.A., Bush, R., Lin, B.B. and Gaston, K.J., (2015). ‘The health benefits of urban nature: how much do we need?.’ BioScience, 65(5), pp.476-485.

United Nations (2018) “68% of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, says UN” United Nations [Online] https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html Accessed 25/10/21

World Health Organization. , Urban Population Growth, Global Health Observatory Database, (2013) World Health Organization, Accessed 25/10/21 www.who.int/gho/urban_health/situation_trends/urban_population_growth_text/en/index.html

Yin, J., Yuan, J., Arfaei, N., Catalano, P. J., Allen,J. G., & Spengler, J. D. (2020). Effects of biophilic indoor environment on stress and anxiety recovery: A between-subjects experiment in virtual reality. Environment International, 136, 105427.

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Literature – My Working Definition of City

Defining City

I am concerned with defining city from non-city space rather than defining one city from another (Krupat and Guild, 1980).

Cities can be defined by differing criteria, including size, density, function, and degree of urbanism (Frey and Zimmer, 2001).

Defining cities through social categories is increasingly challenging as rural areas begin to showcase characteristics of urban areas and those from rural areas who migrate to urban spaces bring their characteristics with them. This suggests urban and rural spaces to exist simultaneously with minimal divisions under social characteristics (Frey and Zimmer, 2001).

Frey and Zimmer (2001) work to move their definition of city beyond the administrative boundaries, set by government, that we are typically familiar with. However, in order to make my target area as easily understandable to my stakeholders as possible, I feel it is necessary to maintain these administrative boundaries for cities, as they are so widely understood.

However, Frey and Zimmer (2001) accept that the majority of researchers do accept the administratively defined boundaries of cities as it is hard to gain sufficient data to define urban areas.

(Critique) – the work of Frey and Zimmer (2001) largely focuses upon urban growth factors in the city and the historical formation of cities, which isn’t relevant to the circumstances in which I am looking to utilise the term city. This is due to city being a locality providing a boundary of space to work within for my project, which isn’t reliant upon examining how these spaces are developed or grow.

My working definition of city:

Large spaces of densely settled populations, identified by government-set, administratively defined boundaries.

What I Learned:

  • Defining cities through social characteristics is increasigly challenging due to the migration of practises and ideals through urbanistaion
  • Scales of growth through urbanisation, size, density and function are all utilsied to define cities
  • Adminsatrivelty given boundaries, set by govenrments are the most commonly used method for defning cities utilsied by reserachers due to difficulties in gaining data
  • My working deifnition of city – Large spaces of densely settled populations, identified by government-set, administratively defined boundaries.

(Frey and Zimmer, 2001)

Reflections

This definition of city will help to provide clarity in the spaces I am looking to target and address in my work. The definition may evolve as my research progresses and I will adjust the definition based upon any boundaries I encounter or limits I need to enforce whilst progressing through my project.

Bibliography

Frey, W.H. and Zimmer, Z., (2001). ‘Defining the city’. Handbook of urban studies, 1, pp.14-35.

Krupat, E. and Guild, W., (1980). ‘Defining the city: The use of objective and subjective measures for community description.’ Journal of Social Issues, 36(3), pp.9-28.

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Literature – Unpacking Online Communities for Nature In

Defining Online Community

For the purposes of my project, I am working largely from Preece’s (2000) definition of an online community, which denotes 4 components that an essential for a group to achieve the status of an online community.

These 4 components are as follows (Preece, 2000, p3):

  • Socially interacting people striving to satisfy their own needs;
  • A shared purpose like an interest or need that provides a reason to cooperate;
  • Policies in the form of tacit assumptions, rituals, or rules that guide the community members’ behavior; and
  • A technical system that works as a carrier that mediates social interaction.

The work of Dellarocas (2006) and Leidner et al. (2010) highlights that online communities also offer spaces for businesses, customers, and employees to collaborate.

Subsequently, my definition of an online community is: A space hosted on the internet, connecting people with common interests to serve a mutual goal.

I wish to note that the focus of the Nature In community to be online is predominately to allow the community to reach as many people from as many different countries, backgrounds, and ethnicities as possible. In future plans, there may be in-person community meetings, either through in-person talks and panel discussions or through natural events. However, such plans will fall beyond the scope of this master’s project.

Online Community Building

The work of Reheingold (2000) explores how online communities typically follow their own set of rules in terms of their growth patterns and building. Each community expands in its own organic way, which can be hard to predict.

Key principles can be applied to most online communities, but they require the application of interpersonal skills, intuition, and improvisation to be truly successful (Bowes, 2002). See the ‘building online communities for professionals’ section below to explore these principles more.

Building Member Attachment and Commitment in Online Communities

The works of Ren et al., (2012) offers a systematic breakdown of different attachment style to groups, as well as exploring possible design features that can help to increase attachment.

(Critique) – Although these works are informative, it is largely theoretical and conceptual rather than practical which isn’t helpful in looking at how to initially build and form the community. Perhaps this works may be of more use when the community is larger and beginning to be more established.

I found the book ‘Building Successful Online Communities’ (Kraut and Resnick, 2012) much more useful and informative in how to build committed community members, which can ultimately make the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful online community. Committed members are much more active within the groups, engaging more and drawing other members to get involved.

3 key types of commitment regarding online communities:

  • Affective commitment – feelings of closeness to group members
  • Normative commitment – feelings of obligations to the group
  • Need-based/ Continuance commitment – centered around incentives in the group and the quality of alternatives avalaible to the group increasing the costs of leaving

These attachments together determine how long and how committed people are within a community group.

(Critique) – Kraut and Resnick (2012) offer evidence-based ideas and easily implemented ways in which to build and also increase attachment, which will be very useful when growing the Nature In Community. For instance, the book offers examples of emails/ messages sent out to communities and picks out the key aspects to replicate to build trust, attachment, and commitment between your community members.

Knowledge Exchange in Online Communities

Law and Chang (2008) unpack knowledge fostering in communities under a social capital building framework. They explore the role of technology to build social capital through their 4 pillars of identity profiling, sub-community building, feedback mechanism, and regulatory practice and this social capital is then thought to be utilised to drive the contribution of knowledge into the community

For the purpose of the Nature In the community, I am looking to foster new knowledge between community members through collaboration and discussion, as well as exchanging knowledge to increase understanding and intelligence on topics amongst the community.

Faraj et al. (2011) demonstrate the power and use of online communities, as they allow knowledge exchange between apparent strangers often even without direct conversation. They argue it is the fluidity of online communities that dictates the success of passing knowledge in and out of the community. Fluctuations in the fluidity of factors such as time, identity, and social disembodiment of ideas can allow for opportunities in knowledge collaborations in response to the change of these factors.

(Critique)- Faraj et al. (2011) offer a strong theory for how knowledge exchange can occur and why, alongside examples of this. But there is little scope for how to artificially create these exchanges within the community. The theory is based around the change in interaction factors offering the opportunity for collaboration; thus, suggesting one or more of the factors would have to be manipulated for the opportunities to be artificially manufactured and stimulate knowledge exchange, but there are no given ideas of how to do this.

Building Online Communities for Professionals

The work of Bowes (2002) is hugely informative on the topic of forming a professional online community, as I am aiming to do with the Nature In Community. However, in the instance of Bowes the focus is on creating a professional community for educational professionals and looks to provide support and development rather than knowledge sharing and collaboration.

It is suggested to employ welcome messages for newcomers to the group to make them feel welcomed and nurtured, alongside the offering of a weekly or monthly newsletter (Bowes and Williams, 2000).

A balance between Ad hoc and structured activity is recommended to ensure community members have the opportunity for flowing discussion but the motives of the group remain clear and structured. This concept alines with my plans for Nature In, to post stimuli for collaboration and conversations between members, as well as informative content (Bowes, 2002).

Structured activities such as online guest events are outlined to include external knowledge in the community. In regards to Nature In, this is already something I am employing through my Panel Discussions and so I am very pleased to discover this is academically proven to aid the progression of my community (Bowes, 2002).

Bowes (2002) suggests professional online communities benefit from occasional face-to-face encounters/ meetings. This is in keeping with some of my future plans for the Nature in community and so in discovering this academic base for the decision, which corroborates my intervention findings, I will be sure to action this.

Summary of Learning:

  • My working definition of online community: A space hosted on the internet, connecting people with common interests to serve a mutual goal. Based on the work of Preece, (2000), Dellarocas (2006) and Leidner et al. (2010).
  • Building committed members is crucial to a online communities sucess
  • Committed and attached members are developed through: building commitment and trust between those wanting to stay in a group, encourgaing identity based attachemnet via a set of shared ideals, reducing forces that may undercut comittment such as feeling of disconnect in larger groups (Kraut and Resnick, 2012).
  • Knowledge exchange can occur in online communities from the fluctuation of variables such as time, identity and social disembodiment of ideas provding the opportuntiy for collaboration (Faraj et al., 2011)
  • Nuture members and new comers through welcome messages and monthly newsletters (Bowes, 2002)
  • To encourage community interaction and growth through implement a balance of ad hoc and strcutured content posting, offering organised events within the group (Bowes, 2002)
  • Host some in perosn events as well as online, so that community members can meet if tehy wish (Bowes, 2002)

Reflections

In conducting this literature review around community building I have formed a clear base of knowledge around communities to work from and a framework in which to begin building and growing the online community of Nature In.

Bibliography

Bowes, J., (2002). ‘Building online communities for professional networks.’ Global Summit of Online Knowledge Networks, Adelaide, Australia.

Bowes, J. and Williams, M. (2000), Building the VECO Online Community – a model for encouraging novices. National Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 25, number 1, Pp 60-72

Dellarocas, C., (2006). ‘Strategic manipulation of internet opinion forums: Implications for consumers and firms.’ Management science, 52(10), pp.1577-1593.

Faraj, S., Jarvenpaa, S.L. and Majchrzak, A., (2011). ‘Knowledge collaboration in online communities.’ Organization science, 22(5), pp.1224-1239.

Kraut, R.E. and Resnick, P., (2012). Building successful online communities: Evidence-based social design. Mit Press.

Law, S.P.M. and Chang, M.K., (2008). ‘Fostering knowledge exchange in online communities: a social capital building approach.’

Leidner, D., Koch, H. and Gonzalez, E., (2010). ‘Assimilating Generation Y IT New Hires into USAA’s Workforce: The Role of an Enterprise 2.0 System.’ MIS Quarterly Executive, 9(4).

Preece, J. (2000). ‘Online communities: Designing usability and supporting sociability.’ Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Ren, Y., Harper, F.M., Drenner, S., Terveen, L., Kiesler, S., Riedl, J. and Kraut, R.E., (2012.) ‘Building member attachment in online communities: Applying theories of group identity and interpersonal bonds.’ Mis Quarterly, pp.841-864.

Rheingold, H. (2000). ‘The virtual community: Homestead- ing on the electronic frontier’ (rev. ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

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Literature- Sense of Place and Community

For my undergraduate dissertation, I examined the new development of Port Loop in Birmingham which offered a new community with Birmingham’s first new park in over 10 years and communal garden spaces, alongside community facilities of coffee shops and communal working spaces.

In order to unpack the value of this development in terms of social, cultural, and financial value I examined literature around a sense of place and community building. I find in my project work now some of this literature review is again prevalent and can be applied as a framework to keep in mind when building my own community through Nature In.

My full dissertation can be downloaded from the file link below, where you can read my literature review section from pages 10 – 16, with 14-16 focusing on sense of place/ community.

Dissertation – Assessing the Financial, Social and Cultural Value of New Developments: The Case of Port Loop, Birmingham Download

Community Building Literature – In respect of the Nature In Community:

The works of Crow and Mah (2012) suggest community to be a contested term throughout literature. However, for the purpose of developing the Nature In Community, the community will refer to a space hosting a collective mission and ideals to achieve a common goal through knowledge sharing, collaboration, and action.

I am primarily focused on concepts of online community and placemaking to develop strong social and cultural values among and for community members. These concepts will be unpacked in my following post

Bibliography

Crow, G. and Mah, A. (2012) ‘Conceptualisations and meanings of ‘community’: the theory and operationalization of a contested concept.’ Report to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Swindon, pp. 1-39.

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Outcomes from Immersive Natural Event

Due to the distributions on the first day of the event and then also issues with the light and noise present in the canteen area the event was held, there was low participation in the event. Subsequently, there is only a small amount of evidence collated to analyse.

Analysis and Evaluation of Outcomes:


Conversations:

The majority of participant interactions were interesting conversations with people intrigued by the event. These conversations predominately led to exchanges of contact details to keep in touch and to look to collaborate on future work, which was very exciting and valuable.


Feedback from Conversations with Participants:

  • Fine art student – 4D she was intrigued by the use of projections the event and took a video of it. She really liked the natural imagery from the peak district. 
  • Graphic designer – interesting thought for her how to include nature into her work and bring it into other practises of her life
  • architecture – she was interested in utilising it in her work but less so something she is super passionate about- she would be more interested if a client wanted it then she could use the resources to find out more about natural design.
  • Materials and deisgn MA student – looking how different materials can be utilised to replicate nature 
  • performance arts student – using the rave scene as a method of communication for integrating cultures loves the projections of nature and thinking of it in that way – wants to look to collaborate to utilise similar projections of nature in her work – but she is less focused on sustainability
  • Industrial designer student- wants to get in touch about collaborations, loved thinking how to fuse ideas of nature and humans together in the city space, really enjoyed watching the projections as she ate. She also recommends i look into the artist – Moon Ribas who exhibits how earthquakes impact humans through movement and dancing. 
  • narrative environments student- really interested in my project, she looks at how to communicate stories in a new way and environment. Her friend on her course is really interested in bringing nature and forests to people after covid with people still staying in she wants them to get outside and so she is going to pass my email onto her friend to look at working together in the future! She also really enjoyed the wind noise as she felt it made her really feel like she was in the space.

What I learned:

  • People enjoyed the video content and found the natural imagery engaging and relaxing
  • The video was thought-provoking in making people think about nature and when spoken to how they could include nature in their work. Perhaps to get the point of how to include nature in their work across to more people I could have displayed a poster by the video showcasing that very question.


Paper Sheets and Google Forms Questions:

However, despite offering QR codes to google forms of questions and displaying questions on large sheets of paper for people to write thoughts around, there was very little uptake in these activities. I had only 3 participants write feedback on the sheets and lots of this was one-word answers such as ‘peaceful’ and ‘relaxing’.


Perhaps I should have handed out bookmarks with the google forms QR code on the tables before people sat down so that they could answer the questions as they watched the video. Good thought if I do an event in similar circumstances in the future.

Feedback from Google forms:

What I learned:

  • The video helped people to feel the benefits of integrating with nature – peaceful, comfertable, calm and relaxed
  • The video provided insporation to include nature in work/ projects – thinking of developing pattern inspired by nature
  • People said they wished to visit other natural events and that it provided a small escape from the busy world of city life london.

These key takeaways suggest the event was a success in achieving its aims of showcasing the benefits of nature and how to include nature in city spaces in innovative and engaging ways, also in provoking ideas to include nature in professional work and building the Nature In community. However, the limited participants in the event do limit the success of these outcomes.


Online Nature In Communities:

I also promoted my online community groups on both LinkedIn and Facebook. I am still awaiting people to join the groups from the QR codes that I have handed out, and I am aware that leaving people to do this of their own accord means there is unlikely to be an uptake in the activity. The participants which I exchanged contact details (5 of them) I will contact to again promote them to join the group for conversion and collaboration on bringing nature into city spaces through their work.


Interestingly when conversing with the narratives environment student she was surprised the communities were online and not held in a physical space for conversation and collaboration. This was an angle I hadn’t really considered before as I had thought more to host panel discussion events or talks in person, not the community conversations themselves. The idea of hosting physical community meetings is something I will definitely look to explore more in the future.


Also, some people said they didn’t use linked in or Facebook only Instagram and so maybe I will look to expand the community on that platform too.

What I have learned/ Evaluation:

  • I gained connections with students off a vast variety of courses from industrial materials to narrative environments and preformance arts. It was really useful to hear the different perspectives on bringing nature into spaces and how everyone approches the topic differently but that it is a concpet the enagges people from a variety of fields.
    • Seeing the appeal of bringing nature into city spaces attract such a variety of people solidifield my decision to step away from limiting my work to hospiality businesses. The adjusted scope of my project helped to engage all of these individuals and can allow for future collaborations with them in the community to bring nature into cities through their work.
  • I furthered my skills in thinking on my feet. When uptake in the event was low, but I saw people watching the video from their seats I began to go round and hand out QR codes to individuals to try and gain their feedback and to heighten engagement in the event. I do however think that I should have done this sooner, as at the stage that I began doing this, the peak lunchtime slot was over.
  • The use of the video was enjoyed by many and provided the relaxing benefits of interacting with nature, it also served well in provoking thoughts around nature and even including nature in people’s professions.
    • I would look to utilise the video again in other events or situations
  • To consider hosting the community in perosn as well as online and on instagram as another platform alongside LinkedIn and Facebook

Reflection:

Looking to develop other events, I feel I need to focus upon inviting an audience rather than relying on engaging people already occupied in spaces, as this can be very hard to involve people as they don’t wish to spare their time. In order to establish such an audience, I feel it is appropriate to focus on building the communities online over the coming weeks with a view to hosting iterations of the event interventions in the future. Once a community begins to become established then the core community can invite their contacts and create a buzz around the vent so then passersby might be intrigued to get involved alongside the invited crowd.

However, there are positives to take from this event in that the projections provided the benefits of interacting with nature, as well as inspiring people to think of nature in their work; and the majority of participants stated they would be interested to visit future natural events.

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Day 2 – Immersive Natural Event

Thanks fully CSM reopened today so I was able to conduct my event! The start of the event was very slow as the canteen was empty expect for 2/3 people until around 12:30pm. 

Setup 

Today I pinned the sheet up higher to hide as much of the purple border as possible. I also pinned up some of my sheets to write on the encourage people to come up and write ideas down, and this also helped to cover more of the purple board.


The light on the projection was still a big issue today. I feel that having moved the event to CSM so last minute this was a factor I overlooked slightly and it has really impacted the effect my event could have had.

Engagement With Stakeholders

  • performance arts student – using the rave scene as a method of communication for integrating cultures loves the projections of nature and thinking of it in that way – wants to look to collaborate to utilise similar scale de in her work – but she is less focused on sustainability and nature 
  • Industrial designer student- wants to get in touch about collaborations, loved thinking how to fuse ideas of nature and humans together in the city space, really enjoyed watching the projections as she ate. She also recommends i look into the artist – Moon Ribas who exhibits how earthquakes impact humans through movement and dancing. 
  • narrative environments student- really interested in my project, she looks at how to communicate stories in a new way and environment. Her friend on her course is really interested in bringing nature and forests to people after covid with people still staying in she wants them to get outside and so she is going to pass my email onto her friend to look at working together in the future! She also really enjoyed the wind noise as she felt it made her really feel like she was in the space.

Evaluation

Successes:

  • Good meaningful conversations with the participants I did interact with which can be followed up to lead to collaborations and their contributions to the online community.
  • I went round and started to hand out bookmarks with QR codes on to google forms of the questions and this enlisted some responses. In hindsight, I should have done this sooner rather than trying to speak to people on an individual basis that they were apprehensive might take up a lot of their time. Handing out the bookmarks so they could complete the question whilst they viewed the event in their own time was a much better idea.


Midground:

Many people sat eating sat to face and watch the video, suggesting they were intrigued by the event, but that was the extent of their interaction with the event.

Failures:

  • The location. The canteen was too noisy and bright with people focused on having a quick lunch and a chat that interacting with the event. This type of event possibly suits more passers-by or exhibit-style events rather than a space where everyone has ulterior motives for their use of time in the space. 
  • Writing on the sheets had low uptake.

Reflection:

I had positive feedback on the content and mission of the event, so I feel something similar could work effectively if utilised under a different setting. Possibly a projection event could work as part of an exhibit, or in a space with footfall (but not too light/ lights on!) 

I had some really interesting conversations with the participants that did engage with the event. I have the contact details for the vast majority of these participants and I plan to reach out to them all to get involved in the community and collaborate in the future.

Key takeaway – I was able to connect with many up and coming professionals within the design industry in a vast range of fields that were interested in learning how to bring nature into city space through their work.

Evidence

Please see link to google drive below containing images and videos of the event:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vb2r5DRSpB8EB59rznm-BJFx8Zo9AjmJ?usp=sharing

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Re-evaluating the Direction and Position of My Project

Over the past week, I have had space to take a step back from my work and truly look to evaluate my current direction and focus on my project due to illness stopping me from continuing on with practical work. This time has been invaluable to consider whether my current interventions and research question truly encapsulate the energy and motives of my work and what I wish to achieve.

I have included below my written workings that follow my decision-making process throughout the week and my evolution in evaluating where I am currently at and where I want to progress to. However, I then go on to summarise my thinking and consequential decision making to clarify my direction going forward as a result of this evaluation and reflection.

Progression of Reflection and Evaluation on Project Through to Evolution of Work:

Summary of Thinking and Evaluation of Project

  • Move away from simply reconnecting people to nature to consider the type of change I wish to make
    • This change initially being thought as an attitudional one but I feel this is best achieved through forming a community and community practise to create real change on a larger scale rather than small one off design events and talks ran by me – strength in numbers…
    • Strategic level change – also considering fact finding interventions to assess how people in the market react to this community

  • A community approach to build new attitudes in how nature is utilised in design, consequently results in reconnecting people to nature
    • So, my new direction in my work is much more specific and achieveable whilst providing a framework for real change. As, upon relfection I can now see my previous research question was quite diffused in its direction and purpose due to reconnecting people to nature being a broad focus.
    • Community approach also plays to my strengths of connecting with many top level stakeholders in my field and helps to connect all of the work I have been conducting in the background of my project such as meeting lost of biophilic, natural and sustainability experts
    • The group also adresses a key issue I have noticed through connecting with these experts and reaching out to differnet stakeholders. This being that the field of biophilia/natural design/ sustaibility led companies are very scattered across the internet and sites such as LinkedIn. This makes it very hard for professionals to meet each other but also for their knowledge to be combined and implemented in spaces in a new way. This knowledge can also then be shared with other industry professionals such as interior designers and architects that can be added into the community who can then implement the communtiy discussed ideas and concpets of natural design in their projects and also link with companies who can help make these ideas a reality.
      • I believe there is scope to combine my work and interests into building this professional multistakeholder community

  • The change to make is in percieving nature as a must have in design rather than a nice to have – this not only provides health and wellbeing benefits associated with intercting with nature, but can also help to meet sustianbility targets

  • Aim is to bring nature into city spaces are these are the spaces that desperately need the focus of natural design and also largely contain the people that feel most disconnected from nature (from my intervention findings and further reserach)
    • My work focusing on hospitality is still very relevant, only now there is wider scope for the application of nature in other city spaces, such as urban interior spaces and workplaces
    • Focusing on hospitality was seen as the correct way forward and entry point for my work at the begining as a sector with maxium impact. Hospitality was focused upon due to there being little applications of customer centric biophilic deisgn in the hospitality sector, hospitality having been hit so harshly by the pandemic and such design schemes and events helping to attract customers, the rise in sustainably counscious venues and the popularity of hospitality spaces leading to a vast sphere of influence among city dwellers that typcially ave minimal intercations with nature were all contributing factors.
      • However, with the progression of my work looking towards community building and practise there is a natural evolution away from limiting that community to the hospitality sector, as the communtiy can be of great benefit to multiple city spaces.
      • There is naturally multiple applications for this professional community as hospitality is so closesly linked to the consumer market; therefore, my work up until now feeds into the creation of this community space almost seamlessly.

New Direction In Summary

Research Question:

How can community practice encourage knowledge sharing on biophilic design to promote the inclusion of nature in city spaces?

Stakeholders:

Primary stakeholders – Natural design experts and professionals interested in learning about and incorporating natural design

Secondary stakeholders – Owners of internal city spaces (having the opportunity to host the ideas of the community)

Tertiary stakeholders – Users of city spaces that now incorporate nature as a result of work from the Nature In Community, thus the benefit from the work of the project.

Interventions:

  • Professional Community via LinkedIn page, featuring collaboration and conversation in the group, as well as Clubhouse talks to share knowledge and Instagram for publicity
  • Natural Events – showcase what can be achieved through natural design when thinking innoavctively and collaboratively, but also utilsie these events being held at Chelsea College of Arts to add up and coming deisgners and creative practitioners that are sustianbly focused into the professional community group

Reflection

This period of evaluation and reflection on the direction of my project has been invaluable in working to create the most effective outcomes possible. I now feel passionate that I am working to develop interventions that actively target the key aims of my work and that combine all aspects and ambitions of my work into an impactful, engaging and challenging direction.

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Action Plan – Moving into U3

As Unit 3 is now underway, I have devised an action plan to move forwards through the final stages of my master’s project. This plan involves streamlining my interventions into the most impactful and inventive ways to achieve the aims of my research question.

Focusing My Interventions:

Events

Events are my predominant intervention to re-connect people to nature through visiting hospitality spaces. The events aim to connect people to a natural environment whilst visiting a typically unnatural space. Consequently, they can feel the health benefits of interacting with nature as well as building their connection to nature, which will improve their care for the natural world and hopefully increase their uptake in sustainable practices.

Chelsea College of Arts have confirmed I can host more events in their spaces, and their canteen spaces is re-opening at the end of September. Consequently, I am hosting my immersive event in the canteen on the 7th and 8th of October.

  • Canteen Event 7/8th Oct
    • Immersive event implementing the positives from the herb event alongside the innovative ideas founded in technobiophilia
      • Ideas:
        • Implementing live stream waterfall and soundscapes
        • Incoprorate physical plants as they were well recived in herb event, as well as possibly scents as they were greatly enjoyed from the herbs
        • Look to measure connection through body metrics

In developing this immersive event I am also going to explore the avenues of creating responsive immersive projections through Microsoft Kinect software, or utilising AR to bring in natural elements to the space. I will evaluate the most effective of these methods, if any are appropriate and work on implementing them into the event.

I also have the opportunity to test smaller scales of ideas I wish to implement in the canteen in Chelsea’s cafe space, wish will be a very advantageous space once I have got a more precise view of my ideas for the event.

ClubHouse/ Podcast

To look to connect people to nature through hospitality even further, I am going to take the highly interesting and original conversations from my panel discussions and from the panels into talks on clubhouse or a podcast. The talks will be aimed at hospitality professionals as well as biophilic/ natural experts to learn how nature can be incorporated into hospitality spaces.

I am deciding between clubhouse as it is aimed at professionals and is a newly emerging platform over the past year which can help reach my intended audience on a wider scale, in a new and engaging way. However, discussions on clubhouse can’t be recorded and you have to be available at the moment to talk part and listen to the discussion, which restricts who can view and learn from the conversations. Therefore, I am also looking at whether a podcast may be a more suitable format as discussions can be kept forever and relistening to. But, guiding users to find your podcast can be very difficult and so it may be tricky to reach my intended audience. I will explore both methods in greater depth and make a decision.

Instagram

I will continue to run the Nature.In Instagram page in posting applications of nature in different hospitality spaces, as well as promoting the events for nature.in; but this is very much a sideline aim to accompany the key interventions.

The Instagram aims to connect people to nature through developing a type of online catalogue of hospitality venues that actively try to incorporate nature into their spaces; thus, encouraging people to visit them and develop their connections to nature.

Reflection

I’m very happy to have narrowed the focus of my work slightly and I will continue to narrow in more as I reflect further upon the outcomes of my previous interventions. I feel it is of great benefit to have done this for both the direction and clarity of my project, as well as for my personal focus to move away from constantly conjuring up new ideas. I am excited to deepen my focus on these interventions and create something that creates real change.

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Unit 2 Presentation

This week I completed my presentation to mark the end of U2. This was a great opportunity to provide some added insights into the interventions I have conducted over Unit 2 as well as some visual evidence. The presentation slides can be found below.

Feedback:

The majority of my feedback centred around now focusing my efforts on the most effective and suitable interventions out of the range I have conducted. Narrowing in my field of focus in this way will allow for added depth and reflection into the interventions rather than doing many to a slightly lesser depth. It was advised to conduct this narrowing in the process by considering which interventions most directly achieve my research question of connecting people to nature through hospitality venues

Reflections:

From the feedback on my presentation, I am now looking to single out the most promising avenues for enquiring to pursue in my future interventions. An action plan for these avenues will be available on my blog over the coming days.

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Meeting with Sue Thomas – Technobiophilia

Yesterday I had a very informative and insightful discussion with Sue Thomas, a pioneer in technobiophilia and she actually coined the term! Our discussion can be seen below and I have also typed up some key points from it.

Discussion Points:

  • Tragetting sense of smell
    • Utilsing perfume spray before food is given out eg: vanilla scent or violet, nothing too over powering that distracts from the food/ drink but something unusual that sets the tone for a natural experience
      • Easily removed from a senario unlike diffusers

  • Technobiophilia experiments
    • Irish phone game of differing landscapes, linked to a meaure of oxygen levels to determine the change in stress levels after experiencing nature
    • Art project in hospital showing live stream of coast or coutryside and the pateints could choose which. The patients were lukemia patients with their vitals measured constantly, but there were no records taken of the impact of the nature on their stress levels
    • Snow ward – Seattle military hospital had to chnage the soilders dressings everyday which caused great pain. So, they developed a VR game to distract them that involved runing and playing in snow, they also sat the soliders in a cold environemnt whilst playing the game. The experiment found that the soliders didnt feel the pain whilst in teh immerisve natural experience!
  • Restaurants could measure oxygen levels in an event or experience to see impacts of natural intercations
    • Utilise finger clip to measure oxygen levels – talk to medical professionals or medical supply company
    • Samsung S8 phone utilise a ‘stressmeter’ on the back of the phones measures the levels of oxygen in the skin which is lower if you are stressed
    • Could measure oxygen levels at the table and take the readings when ordering?
  • Use of sound in natural experiences
    • Contact British Libary and utilse their audio collection, also BBC sound archive
    • Radio Lento collect their own natural soundscapes – ask to collaborate?
  • Connecting people to water as a natural element
    • Implementing a live stream of a wtaerfall into technobiophilic event?
    • Book Blue Mind by Wallace Nichols talks on why we are attracted to water
    • Even utilsie items associated with water eg: fish net decoartions/ plants associated by water
    • Craete that gut reaction of connecting to nature, then the next step can be nudging people to act more sustainably
    • Crashing water soundscapes? – relaxing and exciting at the same time?
    • Ways to recreate the smells of running fresh water?
  • Natural sounds utilsied in spaces
    • Bird song boxes – small reminder of nature that connects you when you walk into an unnatural space
  • Contact biophilic cities – similar to the journal of biophilic design, but American verison, aks to talk with them if anything similar to my ideas is being done in the US that they know of?
    • Look at the likes of cutting edge american innovators eg: silicon valley, portland oregan and california

Reflection

I was so appreciative of the opportunity to talk to Sue as she is so highly respected in the area of technobiophilia. It was brilliant to talk through different academic studies and possible applications of technobiophilia with her. This conversation and the others I have had over the past few days with people like Kristina Libby and Heidi Learaertz have led to great confirmation from my stakeholders that they believe my ideas have the potential to be highly useful, engaging and powerful. This has really inspired me to move into the development of these next ideas iterations of interventions, utilising what I have learnt from my first interventions and building upon the feedback of my expert stakeholders.

Looking towards my next stakeholder meetings of this type, reflecting on my interviewing technique, I feel I need to work to ensure I ask the interviewee more questions to encourage them to talk, as I feel sometimes I fall into the trap of early wanting talk to talk about my ideas and plans which can take over the interview.