A GUIDE TO SELF-HELP
Suzanne Wu / May 2014
I CAN HELP!
I’m going to manipulate the amount of information we by artificially adjusting the levels of stimuli.
“A Guide to Self Help” by Suzanne Wu “Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of bachelor of fine arts in furniture design” Rhode Island School of Design Department of Furniture Design May 2014
To avoi
sldkfjsldkfjsdlkfjsdlf (help yourself, utility)
(what
makes
me
happy)
taking it e-z / comfort-able / positive reinforcement / peer recognition / fulfilling connection /shared activity / physically fit / fulfillment in work and relationships / making meaning / kinship / filial piety / knowing your
id cognitive chaos, we try to be selective in what we perceive. nope nope nope
YES!
nope
nope nope
nope
nope
humble / a level of living standard / work = play / endorphins / a level of knowing (enough) /
nope nope
placement / have trust in something / staying
want & potential to get it / availability / po-
nope
tential energy / ahead of some standard or curve / > quantification / having time 2 know and collect / the novel / micro-changing the world / self-awareness / <% of accountability
the problem (a slow drown, not ready, where am i)
[SECONDARY ITEMS] See: Clothing that are not dirty enough for washing but aren’t clean enough to be put back on the hangers. These items are relatively harmless in small amounts but, if neglected, will quickly began to encroach on the livable space.
The spaces we inhabit and the presentation of the objects inside affect our interactions with them on a physical and mental level. I want to create a system of storage units that can enable humans and objects to better inhabit the same space. Our everyday interaction with objects is often maladjusted due to our inability to deal with our ever-growing collection of possessions. There is an increasing variety of objects that escape our traditional categories of organization. As a result, they either get forced into preexisting compartments or get thrown into a pile with other unclassifiable objects resulting in them becoming either distracting or forgotten. The ideations of self-help pushes us to be the sole and benefactor for our life. Self help is a paradox that ultimately puts you in the hands of your imperfect fallible self. Self help is dependent on self-diagnosing your own problems and labeling them some version of a deficiency then going in and fixing yourself. It tells you there’s a better version of you, and makes vague comparisons between what you could be and how you could do it to be “it”. It tells you nobody can change you unless you want to change, and the only thing responsible is yourself. You alone can turn your life around, or light yourself on fire. The shame and sense of achievement comes buy one get one free. It’s a kind of self-medication that gives you no accident coverage insurance. It’s all on you. So you just have to keep improving until you’re ready and there, whereever that is.
Humans and the External World WORKING MEMORY
Our relationship with the external world is constantly changing. According to Darwinism we are pre-selected by our enviornments. The external world marks out our limitations through natural resources and weather then we react
[Total knowledge in the system]
to its conditions.
[Amount that can be perceived or thought of at the same time] you are here (you wish)
I’ve always had a hard time at taking control and care of the objects I own and the spaces that I inhabit. This project ultimately stems from my own desire for space and organization in my daily life. Within our inhabited spaces, there are malleable variables. Non-manipulable object space becomes environment space, everything is quite out of your control but you do what you can in the manipulable object space. Your movement can be a powerful thing. Switch the perspective, switch up the visuals, adopt bird’s view where you suddenly see everything and everything is no longer so overwhelming. Things make sense on a level that it doesn’t really all have to matter the same, weigh the same on your mind when you were at its horizon, playing the intimidation game with your bed, full of the paper, notebooks, chewed-out pens, clothes you’ve worn once and have become one pile of history, a pollution trail that followed your body as it slowly gave out bits and pieces of living, a visible trail of life waste. the pile, made of pieces with names, is nameless together. It’s just a “misc pile”. there’s no ownership as when you spoke the name of your Poland Spring water bottle.
Hippocampus as a cognitive map - John O’Keefe The psychological representation of space context-dependent memory objective spatial framework which items and events of an organism’s experience are located and interrelated SPACE •absolute theory : space as a framework which is separate from objects - yet can contain material objects •relative theory : space as nothing more than the relations between material objects themselves cognitive maps - the mental perception of environments •place system - information about places in the environment and the specific objects in specific places ⁃allows us to locate ourselves without reference to any specific inputs (cues) and outputs (responses) •misplace system - signals changes in a particular place, either the addition of a new object or the absence of an old one ⁃used for exploration and build maps of new environments and add new info onto existing maps
psychological v. physical space •psychological space - any space that are directly attributed to the mind; ex: construction on the basis of reflection from experience; abstraction f sensations; organizing principles which overrides diverse sensory inputs for a unifying perception •physical space - external world independent form the existence of minds; ex: the inanimate, incognitant features of the universe; physics rules th existence and properties of this spac innate v. learned/constructed absolute v. relative space
how to help (help yourself, utility)
I’m going to create a system that will aid the way humans live with their external environment. I will do so by understanding the intersection between human needs and object needs, as defined by the human’s need for control on their external space and their own need for direction and repetition. The human needs for space will be studied through how we perceive space through perceptual psychology and the senses and how we can use this information to maximize and divide the amount of space available. The human need for order will be understood through researching the various ways we process information. I’ll be looking at the way mental structures (cognition maps and memory palaces), social structures (corporate spaces, management systems) and information systems (diagrams, networks, maps) are read and visualized and then apply those findings back into my system. The object’s placement is defined by its function and pattern of use. Human perception is selective and chooses where and what to pay attention according to visual perception and cognitive processing. I want to first understand the psychology and physiology behind organization and the ways we perceive, understand, and sort the objects in our lives. Then through manipulating physiological stimuli within a closed environment, I’m can set a new level of hierarchy based on familiar cues.
Creating Hierarchy In order to achieve a uniform level of hierarchy and be able to manipulate it I would need to pare down the pieces to their very most essential color and form with as little variables as possible. I’m designing four pieces that are essentially the point, line, and plane and compose the space.
/ stimuli = order levels of stimuli:
STIMULI WITH HIERARCHY Tone
Color
Saturation
Size/proximity
•
Movement
•
Size
•
Spatial closeness
•
Color and tone
•
Outline
•
Shape (have less obvious visual classing and therefore cannot be classed into one level
Density
of organization - but included because we deal with shapes all the time)
3/5 The room has dictated areas of full and empty; each understood bloc has their own accountable capacity. no loose clothing and miscellaneous items without some version of housing unit. the boundaries are drawn in colored tape mapping each function of the spaces.
the furniture is industrial in the sense that material is metal and pvc and has less material preciousness. the colors a palette of DeWalt orange and fluorescent neons associated with safety and industrial equipment.
the room is lived in and formed to be this way because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve arrange it so. the walls should look like a james turrell installation; colors slide into each other, objects peek through transparencies, you can see beyond the distance. the room feels spatially big while maintaining modest dimensions - you know every corner but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a limitation
things read with a certain contour - marked with the outline, just enough to communicate its role you pull out a drawer and levels sharpen
----[autofocus]---everything is archived, pictured in a range of grays, when you’re looking to remember - keeps the neon tab on the most recent, most exciting, most relevant. wayfinding is easy when you’re given a map that’s not always bird eye view
the ecosystem is a quiet humming infrastructure, the background ritual to the human living inside. strictly decor items are avoided; only functional decorations are allowed - i.e.: rug, curtains, bedspread etc
all the parts of the room say “You Are Here” when you engage with it activity is practiced and aligned on a queue ; all works-in-progress lives chronologically with it’s half-finished brethrens. they get dedicated a spot in the room where you can’t see from every vantage point. the buzz of their potentiality is kept at a low frequency the trash is everything that is expired and “useless”, recycling happens every _______. trash disposal is important because not everything needs to lives forever in our instant database; alike items camouflage each other but also compare and contrast. critical information is only urgent when it's in ALL-CAPS, and ALL-CAPS only stands out in lowercase letters.
NOTHING IS PRECIOUS
when words help (help yourself, semiotics)
Prepositions and Communicating Space I’m creating three pieces for this system that will aid the way people live with their objects. I’m going to achieve that through understanding the intersection between human needs and object needs, as defined by the human’s need for control on their external space and their own need for direction and repetition. The human needs for space will be studied through how we perceive space through perceptual psychology and the senses and how we can use this information to maximize and divide the amount of space available. The human need for order will be understood through researching the various ways we process information. I’ll be looking at the way mental structures (cognition maps and memory palaces), social structures (corporate spaces, management systems) and information systems (diagrams, networks, maps) are read and visualized and then apply those findings back into my system. The object’s placement is defined by its function and pattern of use.
ww
imited capacity.
nouns used in self-help (frequency, linear time)
* character * conduct * tendencies * instruction / manuals * advice
WORKING MEMORY
* manners * spiritual guidance * practical information
[Total knowledge in the system]
* material
[Amount that can be perceived or thought of at the same time]
comfort * idea of progress * state * household * duty * purpose
you are here (you wish)
TWENTY SOME TABS OPENED IN THE BACKGROUND, LEVELS AND LEVELS OF INFORMATION, FLIPPED THROUGH AND COMPILED AND CATEGORIZED BY AN ALGORITHM APPROVED BY THE HUMAN HAND AND REGURGITATED THROUGH THE MOUTH OF SOME CODED HIERARCHY. THERE IS A SENSE OF ORDER IN THIS DENSE BLOCKS OF TOO MUCH. THE GROSS MASSES KEEP GROWING EVEN THOUGH IT'S FAR BEYOND ANY DIGESTIVE CAPACITY WITHIN OUR RESOURCES. PROPOSE A SEARCH. TAG + TAG + INTENT. THE FILTERING PROCESS RENDERS THIS TOWERING LANDFILL THROUGH TINY MINISCULE OPENINGS. SQUEEZED THROUGH 200 WORD HEADLINES, THE TOP 10 SEARCHES ON GOOGLE, ARE ALL LIVE WIRES THAT OPEN THEIR HUNGRY ELECTRIFYING MOUTHS AND REACH FOR A RECIPIENT.
Self help is a paradox that ultimately puts you in the hands of your imperfect fallible self. Self help is dependent on self-diagnosing your own problems and labeling them some version of a deficiency then going in and fixing yourself. It tells you there's a better version of you, and makes vague comparisons between what you could be and how you could do it to be "it". It tells you nobody can change you unless you want to change, and the only thing responsible is yourself. You alone can turn your life around, or light yourself on fire. The shame and sense of achievement comes buy one get one free. It’s a kind of self-medication that gives you no accident coverage insurance. It’s all on you. So you just have to keep improving until you’re ready and there, whereever that is.
“THE LAST THING YOU WOULD THINK COULD IMPROVE SOMEONE’S FUCKED-UP STATION AND SELF WOULD BE A MORE CONCENTRATED EFFORT BY THE VERY PERSON WHO GOT THEMSELVES THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. ISAAC NEWTON STOOD ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS; THE SELF-IMPROVED PERSON TEETERS ON THE BACK OF THE SELFISH, DAMAGED MESS THEY USED TO BE.”1 Thankfully, you are not the problem (at least not entirely). The space and objects that surround you exacerbate certain elements of your behavior, giving you easy access to decisions that are no good. With this degree project I'm proposing a new kind of self help. It's an object / space-based help. The guide comes from the outside in, by restructuring your life through your environment. First step is optimizing your space. This idealized space keeps everything contained and everything relevant highlighted. Nothing is lost in deep storage, misplaced and forgotten, nor are the things left too active, stimuli alive and buzzing. A person is mobile and always changing, so why should his/her space be still and stagnant? Or even worse, why should our environment be bigger/stronger/more permanent than our agency? When something becomes clearly beyond our control, the actions we affect on the space seems futile and predetermined. As the theory of regression in frustration explains through an experiment, a child who is interrupted during playtime and moved to another area suffers from crippling displacement. The effect of this disruption affected both the child’s long-term goal setting and relationship with the space. The visible connection between his expectations and the affected reality grows weaker and lessens his invested effort in growing the space.2
THE NEW INQUIRY. “Vol. 22 Editors’ Note: Self Help.” The New Inquiry. N.p., 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 30 Dec. 2013. <http://thenewinquiry.com/ features/vol-22-editors-note-self-help/>. 1
Barker, Roger. Frustration and Regression. An Experiment with Young Children. Studies in Topological and Vector Psychology II, University of Iowa Press, Iowa. 1941, pp. 216-219. 2
verbs to research to read to listen to understand to file to document to compile to organize to write to note to generalize to plane to grind
The implications of this work lies in creating a mental state of mind that would encourage a healthy lifestyle, whatever version of healthy may mean to you. The pieces were ultimately a part of an instructional toolkit that would enable people like myself to take ownership of my space and overcome my inability to react to the world around me. Just telling people to “deal with it” is not a method of effective repair. We are creatures of comfort, only when we are pushed do we begin to make change. We shape our bodies to the crevices that will fit us only when we know it’s our own or when we have no other choice. Now it’s possible to be in charge of that environment and indeed help yourself.
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