Introduction

This essay was written with the aim of further questioning thought into how we operate in our daily lives. How does what we see affect our actions, how what does others have left behind for us affect the way we see the world? And how might we change the space in which we dwell for the good?

My readings and visits have taken me through the world of the miniature, the action, the Walkscape and looked into the issue of the home space. I have observed what other people have placed in space; from graffiti, poetry, street art, installations, interruptions, activism, and spoken with those who have used the space to make change, and those who have been forced to use the space for the circumstances that have landed them without a stable roof over their head.

What spurs us to take action and physically alter the space we’re in and how can we design to encourage these actions within the spaces we create? As in this day and age a sense of apathy is infecting the way in which we involve ourselves in the outside world. A Microsoft study (2015) showed how, though our attention spans are decreasing to about 8 seconds, we are streamlining information, ignoring the irrelevant and focusing on what we need to know; which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, this also means that if there is something we do not need to know or do, we will not seek it. For example, why go

for a walk in the woods when I can just go to the Gym down the road? Why bother learning the names of plants as it will not affect me? Why question or march against the government as

what I say will not change anything? If the information is not at our fingertips then more often than not we will not take the time to seek it.

Designing space is the way we act in the world, it is the thoughts we put into it. It is the soundscapes, the smell, the vibes, feel, culture, history and latent inspirations to future generations of users. When we have gone what tools do we leave behind for our occupants to use and make a ‘site’ a home that is not just a digital footprint.

We live in a physical world we must take part in it.

BT Telephone Box Poster Unthank Road, Norwich. UK May 2016

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