I first saw the work of Marney Walker in her final year graduation show at University of Brighton I was taken with the prints, which she has re-worked for this exhibition in 75A. The images, on first viewing are attractive, with an eye for bold colour and a design sensibility. Yet, they also imply a formal conceptual grounding in their construction using representations of raw colour data grids representative of the linear space in our high streets. The origin of these images elevates the process from a decorative exercise to a meaningful and evocative interpretation that is, in essence one layer of sensory experience derived from the commercial environment.
These images were created from an investigative design research process to analyse the multiple sensory inputs we experience in the inner city centre environments.
The impetus for the project was based on the assumption that the experience of too much noise, too much information and too much choice in a busy commercial environment can have stressful effects. The colour palette is drawn directly from photographic research and reproduced the text and branding removed. Given the structure and format of the images, we are inevitably reminded of early 20th Century abstract and colour field painting. “The emotion of beauty is always obscured by the appearance of the object. Therefore, the object must be eliminated from the picture." (Mondrian). But it is not this aspect of work that inspired me to ask her to re-present it.
On first viewing, they evoke a subliminal hidden code or language and when we are told the origin of the images the dots are joined and the true origin is revealed. Walker has created these images, by in her words, ‘placing a simple visual filter on the local city environment’, yet behind this filtering process lies greater questions about how we are affected, both consciously and subliminally by our environment and whether or not we should have more control over how we experience this narrow palette of successful brands all competing for attention.
Her analysis has revealed the predominance of red, perhaps to stimulate, attract, grab our attention. We all come to recognise over time the colours that resonate from logo designs. We know that colour effects behaviour and is used in a myriad of ways to as a practical devise to entice and stimulate brand awareness, yet colour theory is an imprecise, dark art and can be more subjective than objective, especially when it relates to product or brand awareness.
Marney is also an occupational therapist acting as an inclusive design consultant working with housing providers to maximise housing options for disabled and older people. She is a spokesperson for the College of Occupational Therapy, and central to all her work is how the environment impacts on human behaviour. It is the notion that Walker approaches the subject of the high street from the perspective of an occupational therapist combined with an acute sense of design and aesthetics, rather than as part of the ‘process’ of an artist’s practice that is significant in my opinion. Her starting point is that the inner city commercial environment can be over stimulating and potentially stressful. The combination of colour, signage and logo design can become a confusing labyrinth to negotiate...
“This is my world: I live in the centre of a commercial urban environment. This environment is deliberately designed to attract our attention. Imagery, colour, slogans and branding demand a response. Inevitably, we are compelled to process, sort, select or reject.
At the beginning of the last century artists experimenting with abstraction believed that colour shape and line could be manipulated to affect the soul. In the contemporary commercial environment we are subjected to a sophisticated manipulation of our subconscious.” Kandinsky, W (1911)
How much energy does it take to negotiate this data, to sort, to select, to process...or to make an active, energy intensive decision to actively ignore it, daily?
Environment Public or Private
Through my own work as a resident artist in a London Hospice and time spent as a consultant in the health care sector I am keenly aware of how our streets are not accessible to those who are not physically ‘fit’. It is rare that you see the older generations shopping on the high street...also public transport is frankly hazardous for many with physical impairments, the London underground being one of the most problematic as modernisation is slow and costly.
Alongside these issues lies an underlying desire to explore the relationship we have with the public realm. Do any of us really understand who owns the spaces that exist in towns and cities? If you have tried to photograph buildings in the City of London you will very often feel the hand of a law enforcement officer that has been called by the building’s security, however the law gives us the right to take photographs anywhere in the public realm, yet many people do not realise the distinction between public and private. Is a shopping centre public? No. It is owned by a private entity. This is a poignant issue as private contractors take over sections of health care provision in the UK. For example Virgin now operates many walk in surgeries on behalf of the NHS.
If the ownership point is slightly tangential, it has to be said that the continuous bombardment of colour, material goods and logos all vying for our attention must create anxiety in some of the population...or perhaps the real issue is the general acceptance of a culture where obscene consumerism is the norm and anything outside the parameters of the 24 hour shopping cycle, both online and on the high street is part of our evolution into beings where shopping has become an alternative to dealing with aspects of our lives which are all too difficult or fearful. After the tragedy of 9/11 president Bush uttered these words to an expectant press... ‘Mrs Bush and I would like to encourage Americans everywhere to go out shopping.’
Can we begin to question the right of private entities to create the all-pervading visual chaos, which exists now on all UK high Streets with the same logos and colours of atttraction? We now know consumerism and the capitalist construct can never deliver the rewards it promises to everyone through trickle-down economics so where do we go from here? Perhaps one way is to start investigating how the power of business alters your psychological landscape, both consciously and through your peripheral vision. As the population gets progressively older, the issue of accessibility on the high street will no doubt become more pressing as businesses realise the lost potential of creating a safe and pleasurable shopping experience for the physically impaired and older generations.
Filters
We all learn to use filters of all kinds to navigate our journey through the ever-increasing amount of data, stimulation and pressure to communicate. What if we reverse engineer the present Status Quo? What would we require other than a laissez faire approach to design of our city centres that meant they would become more palatable places to live and work. Society eventually demanded that In the case of second hand tobacco smoke, it poses a danger to health...and why should those who do not smoke suffer on behalf of the liberty of others to smoke?
In 2012, the software company Adblock twittered that they are to partner with Google Glass to block ads out in real time using coloured pixels to block teach rectangular ad or shop sign. Perhaps Walker’s images are a premonition of a time when we too have some control over the consumerist environment.
These images were created from an investigative design research process to analyse the multiple sensory inputs we experience in the inner city centre environments.
The impetus for the project was based on the assumption that the experience of too much noise, too much information and too much choice in a busy commercial environment can have stressful effects. The colour palette is drawn directly from photographic research and reproduced the text and branding removed. Given the structure and format of the images, we are inevitably reminded of early 20th Century abstract and colour field painting. “The emotion of beauty is always obscured by the appearance of the object. Therefore, the object must be eliminated from the picture." (Mondrian). But it is not this aspect of work that inspired me to ask her to re-present it.
On first viewing, they evoke a subliminal hidden code or language and when we are told the origin of the images the dots are joined and the true origin is revealed. Walker has created these images, by in her words, ‘placing a simple visual filter on the local city environment’, yet behind this filtering process lies greater questions about how we are affected, both consciously and subliminally by our environment and whether or not we should have more control over how we experience this narrow palette of successful brands all competing for attention.
Her analysis has revealed the predominance of red, perhaps to stimulate, attract, grab our attention. We all come to recognise over time the colours that resonate from logo designs. We know that colour effects behaviour and is used in a myriad of ways to as a practical devise to entice and stimulate brand awareness, yet colour theory is an imprecise, dark art and can be more subjective than objective, especially when it relates to product or brand awareness.
Marney is also an occupational therapist acting as an inclusive design consultant working with housing providers to maximise housing options for disabled and older people. She is a spokesperson for the College of Occupational Therapy, and central to all her work is how the environment impacts on human behaviour. It is the notion that Walker approaches the subject of the high street from the perspective of an occupational therapist combined with an acute sense of design and aesthetics, rather than as part of the ‘process’ of an artist’s practice that is significant in my opinion. Her starting point is that the inner city commercial environment can be over stimulating and potentially stressful. The combination of colour, signage and logo design can become a confusing labyrinth to negotiate...
“This is my world: I live in the centre of a commercial urban environment. This environment is deliberately designed to attract our attention. Imagery, colour, slogans and branding demand a response. Inevitably, we are compelled to process, sort, select or reject.
At the beginning of the last century artists experimenting with abstraction believed that colour shape and line could be manipulated to affect the soul. In the contemporary commercial environment we are subjected to a sophisticated manipulation of our subconscious.” Kandinsky, W (1911)
How much energy does it take to negotiate this data, to sort, to select, to process...or to make an active, energy intensive decision to actively ignore it, daily?
Environment Public or Private
Through my own work as a resident artist in a London Hospice and time spent as a consultant in the health care sector I am keenly aware of how our streets are not accessible to those who are not physically ‘fit’. It is rare that you see the older generations shopping on the high street...also public transport is frankly hazardous for many with physical impairments, the London underground being one of the most problematic as modernisation is slow and costly.
Alongside these issues lies an underlying desire to explore the relationship we have with the public realm. Do any of us really understand who owns the spaces that exist in towns and cities? If you have tried to photograph buildings in the City of London you will very often feel the hand of a law enforcement officer that has been called by the building’s security, however the law gives us the right to take photographs anywhere in the public realm, yet many people do not realise the distinction between public and private. Is a shopping centre public? No. It is owned by a private entity. This is a poignant issue as private contractors take over sections of health care provision in the UK. For example Virgin now operates many walk in surgeries on behalf of the NHS.
If the ownership point is slightly tangential, it has to be said that the continuous bombardment of colour, material goods and logos all vying for our attention must create anxiety in some of the population...or perhaps the real issue is the general acceptance of a culture where obscene consumerism is the norm and anything outside the parameters of the 24 hour shopping cycle, both online and on the high street is part of our evolution into beings where shopping has become an alternative to dealing with aspects of our lives which are all too difficult or fearful. After the tragedy of 9/11 president Bush uttered these words to an expectant press... ‘Mrs Bush and I would like to encourage Americans everywhere to go out shopping.’
Can we begin to question the right of private entities to create the all-pervading visual chaos, which exists now on all UK high Streets with the same logos and colours of atttraction? We now know consumerism and the capitalist construct can never deliver the rewards it promises to everyone through trickle-down economics so where do we go from here? Perhaps one way is to start investigating how the power of business alters your psychological landscape, both consciously and through your peripheral vision. As the population gets progressively older, the issue of accessibility on the high street will no doubt become more pressing as businesses realise the lost potential of creating a safe and pleasurable shopping experience for the physically impaired and older generations.
Filters
We all learn to use filters of all kinds to navigate our journey through the ever-increasing amount of data, stimulation and pressure to communicate. What if we reverse engineer the present Status Quo? What would we require other than a laissez faire approach to design of our city centres that meant they would become more palatable places to live and work. Society eventually demanded that In the case of second hand tobacco smoke, it poses a danger to health...and why should those who do not smoke suffer on behalf of the liberty of others to smoke?
In 2012, the software company Adblock twittered that they are to partner with Google Glass to block ads out in real time using coloured pixels to block teach rectangular ad or shop sign. Perhaps Walker’s images are a premonition of a time when we too have some control over the consumerist environment.