Brief Breakdown;
- Should have a social and environmental impact
- Works well in natural environments
- Empowers people
- Effective use of resources including materials and processes
- Easily sustained financially
- How is your idea different from existing interventions
What Makes us happy?
'Luckily, researchers have found an answer to the question that has plagued philosophers for thousands of years.
But before we get into that, there is one important concept you need to understand: Baseline Happiness
We all have a happiness baseline, which is our general long-term happiness. Now, there will always be good days (such as winning the lottery) and not-so-good days (like being paralyzed), and so our daily happiness constantly fluctuates around the baseline.
The important thing here is, happiness, always returns back to baseline. In fact, research by Dr. Happiness aka Ed Diener has found that even after such drastic life changes such as winning the lottery and being paralyzed, happiness will eventually return back to baseline'.
https://medium.com/@MaxWeigand/the-science-of-happiness-what-actually-makes-us-happy-78edcc9bdd58
What is joy me? Joy to me personally means that I am completely engaged in the moment, when I have nothing else on my mind except that feeling of happiness. That idea of leaving all of our daily stresses out of our conscious mind for a brief moment is what will be driving my ideas for this project.
In the book ‘Joyful’, Fetell Lee identifies 10 universal ‘aesthetics of joy’:
- Energy: vibrant color and light
- Abundance: lushness, multiplicity, and variety
- Freedom: nature, wildness, and open space
- Play: circles, spheres, and bubbly forms
- Surprise: contrast and whims
- Transcendence: elevation and lightness
- Magic: invisible forces and illusions
- Celebration: synchrony, sparkle, and bursting shapes
- Renewal: blossoming, expansion, and curves
- Harmony: balance, symmetry, and flow
The history of the smiley face symbol
The origin of the smiley face design is subject to opinion as it it's simplistic design can be contested by many. The classic smiley face we know and love seems to first appear in the early 1970s but the smiley face likeness first appeared in 1963 on an American children's television programme 'The Funny Company'. At the same time Harvey Ball designed a simple Smiley for a local company but neither copyrighted the design, which led to another designer called David Stern claiming authorship. The childlike design is so simplistic there has been numerous claims of being the first.
"The smiley was the perfect feel good symbol" - The Guardian
"Minimalism" - An extreme form of abstract art developed in the USA in the 1960s and typified by artworks composed of simple geometric shapes based on the square and the rectangle (Tate .org.uk)
Art in general represents some sort of subject such as an aspect of the real world or it could convey an experience such as different emotions but with minimalism there is no attempt to represent a reality. That allows each individual to determine what they see within the piece and explore what it means to them.
Minimalism emerged in the late 1950s when artists began to move away from gestural painting, and it gained popularity through the 60s and 70s. This gain in popularity challenged the pre-existing structures of art.
In my project I will try to take inspiration from minimalistic art, but I think upon reflection gestural art may prove more successful to fulfil the brief as I'm trying to unlock joy to people at train stations.
Simplicity - "the quality or condition of being plain or uncomplicated in form or design".
Train Stations
Train stations are a facility where trains stop regularly to unload passengers or cargo. The most part offer services such as ticket sales and waiting rooms, but they vary massively in size, capacity and activity. The first recorded train station is in Swansea, Wales. Which began a passenger service in 1807. But the first terminal train station was recorded in Liverpool in 1830.
Train stations can have a reputation of being dull environments full of commuters who just want to go from point A to point B, therefore my idea needs to create a sense of joy in the short contact time it would have with the viewer.
Merseyrail
I'm going to base my idea off the platforms and facilities offered by Merseyrail, as it's the stations I'm most familiar with and feel I'll have a better understanding as to wether an idea could work or not. also it would allow me to think of ideas that I would personally like to be added whilst I'm using the stations. Merseyrail is a partially underground commuter rail network and train operating company serving Liverpool and the surrounding Liverpool City Region. It consists of 68 stations and 75 miles of route. The network can about in the 1970s and now essential in Liverpool's structure. Statistics show they carry approximately 110,000 passengers each weekday, or 34 million passengers per year which means there is a huge audience that could interact with my proposal for this brief. The average passenger doesn't spend much time at a platform with Merseyrail, therefore my design must work to convey joy effectively in a short contact time window.
Initial Concept - Childish Drawings with slogan
Taking into account my interest in minimalistic art I believed a simple childish drawing with positive slogan may be enough to convey joy to people at a train station. With this simple design it could be placed all over train stations e.g on the platform floor (where commuters will see when looking at their feet in boredom) with little cost which makes the idea very easily fundable. With a simple slogan such as 'smile' it may be enough to just remind people how important it is to have those brief moments of joy amongst the stresses of the day.
Upon reflection, and after creating my first draft of my original idea (childish drawings) I don't think it would be a successful way of conveying joy, nor fulfilling this brief successfully.
I believe that an interactive concept would prove more engaging and I think they key to unlocking joy for passengers is to make them forget for a brief moment, that they are at a train station and forget the stress of their day by interacting with a simple but fun design.
I think a good route to go down would be some sort of interactive concept on the floor, possibly a game e.g hopscotch. I feel that this type of concept would keep the station's structure and professional look but would allow passengers to engage in something.
A similar idea that helped fuel this idea is the idea of a large piano table on the floor that passers by could use by standing on the keys. See the example here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnI1p9u6Co8
Initial Ideas
I designed generic hopscotch paths that had the potential to be developed further, for example the idea of glowing features or sound etc, but after discussing the idea I decided to move away from this idea all together. One of the main reasons I don't want to follow up on this idea is the fact there's nothing innovative about it, it's a generic idea and it may only appeal to younger users and my aim is to unlock joy for all different types of people of all ages who use the train station.
When analysing my idea I also believe it could possibly prove unsafe. The idea of people jumping from square to square could be dangerous next to a live train track, especially when taking into consideration that all types of people use train stations, including children. I believe this idea would mostly appeal to children and they may not think about their safety when 'playing'. I want my idea to be inclusive for all ages so the idea of a jumping game could prove unsuccessful.
Stepping Stones
I believe a good route to follow would be the concept of developing some sort of stepping stones. These would have the potential to be used in numerous different places around a station and I would need to devise a feature that fulfils the brief, that being allow users to be completely lost in that brief moment of being engaged with my design.
I would like my 'stepping stones' to have the idea of interaction central to it's development from the beginning. Aspects that are interactive could include lights, sound, music, imagery etc when stepped on by a user. I must also think about the layout of the stones and also respect the space around them so that it doesn't interfere with the functionality of the station.
My initial Sketches
Lily Pads
This idea proposes to project a pond-like design that would allow commuters to interact with an element of peacefulness within the busyness of the station.
So in conclusion, the above design would be projected onto the station floor which would allow passers by to interact with it. This brief interaction would briefly make them forget about their daily stresses and therefore they would experience a brief moment of joy. I believe this design fulfils the brief as it matches the characteristics of 'joy' that I identified earlier. For example; this design would be projected in vibrant colours, convey nature, include curves and shapes but also demonstrate harmony and flow.