Craft and the built environment

OKAY! This is going to seem weird since I just posted that, but actually I was staring at it for a couple of days AND (don't you hate people who use capitals for emphasis?) I've changed my mind.
Largely because the longer I looked at my idea (and the books on handwriting I got out of the library) the more I realised that I didn't really have an idea, I just liked the thought of looking at and photographing different people's handwriting. Also, I liked idea of having official sounding suburban/urban signs written out in handwriting because I thought it would change the tone of the.........

Forget what I said last night (I didn't have the heart to delete it) I had a tutorial today and I am filled with inspiration in the graphology area. I am a little disappointed that I wasted all that time finding articles on the built environment, but given that I only read one of them, it wasn't a particularly huge amount of time wasted.

SO! The components of my idea:

handwriting,
I want to get samples of different people's handwriting by getting them to copy out official signs (that I will find around Wellington) I am interested in how the handwriting will subvert the authoritative tone of the signs.

graphology,
I will use graphology to analyse the samples and the conclusions reached from this will be used to create fictional narratives about the person writing (who will remain anonymous).

embroidery,
I want to use embroidery (I haven't done this since I was about nine, and I never finished the little sparrow motif or whatever it was) throughout the book, into the paper. I like the idea of embroidering handwriting, especially for the cover

I found this really awesome necklace which was made out of computer keys which spelt 'stitch' and across them was embroidered in handwriting the word 'type'. While the words are kind of cheesy the idea is really cool and it is what inspired me to embroider handwriting, but now I can't find it anywhere, so you will just have to believe me and if I find it later I will let you know.

The Jolly Pocket Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

This book is super awesome. The postman gets knocked on the head by a giant baby's dummy and spends the rest of the book having adventures inside different faerie tales. The especially cool thing about the book (hopefully I can find it and do some scanning, in the mean time I am giving you google images) is that it starts with a little envelope with a magnifying glass in it which comes in handy throughout the book as other envelopes pop up with exciting letters and cards and story books and things in them.

Finally, and most importantly to the brief, ecology,

more on this later.

Graphology

I want to use handwriting (mine, and other people's) as part of this book so I'm going on a bit of a jaunt into the world of graphology, which is analysing people's handwriting to get a sense of their personality and character. I'm not sure how much I believe any of it, but I am certainly interested.

Urban Built Environment and Depression

Urban Built Environment and Depression: A Multilevel AnalysisAuthor(s): Sandro Galea, Jennifer Ahern, Sasha Rudenstine, Zachary Wallace, David VlahovSource: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (1979-), Vol. 59, No. 10 (Oct., 2005),pp. 822-827Published by: BMJ Publishing Group

As the title of this article implies, it examines the link between the urban built environment and depression.The piece is based on a study of 1355 New Yorkers. Their neighbourhoods (which numbered around 59) were examined along with other factors such as income, gender, ethnicity, age, etc, and compared with their mental health.

In adjusted models, persons living in neighbourhoods characterised by poorer features of the built environment were 29%-58% more likely to report past six month depression and 36%-64% more likely to report lifetime depression than respondents living in neighbourhoods characterised by better features of the built environment. 

Conclusions: Living in neighbourhoods characterised by a poor quality built environment is associated with a greater likelihood of depression. Future prospective work designed to assess potential mechanisms underlying these associations may guide public health and urban planning efforts aimed at improving population mental health. (pp. 822)

The survey was taken of non-institutionalised adults over the age of 18 and was created to report on the mental health of NYC citizens after 2001, September 11 attacks. It focused strongly on residents located in neighbourhoods close to the site of the World Trade Center.

The respondents to the survey were questioned about feelings of depression experienced either in their lifetime or in the last six months (since 9/11).

psychosocial stress explanation

poor quality built environments expose residents to more 'daily stressors and hassels' (825) which puts more strain on them and results in a 'greater likelihood of depressions' (825)


concentrated disadvantage explanation

suggests a number of factors in a built environment are responsible for mental health problems. Such factors include absence of green space, noise exposure, possibility of greater likelihood of being exposed to violence or trauma.

social drift explanation (seems to be prefer by this survey, though they admit it is likely that all three explanations play a part)

suggests that people with poor mental health are more likely to move to neighbourhoods with poor quality built environments.

They've spent much of the article stating and restating that they are taking differences in income into account in such a way as to stop the variation in income from effecting their results, but I'm not sure how they've done this (the article is incredibly dry). However, this seems like a kind of shocking conclusion to come to, it seems as though it is saying 'you would have to be mentally ill to live in some of these neighbourhoods'.

However, we show an association between quality of the built environment and likelihood of depression independent of neighbourhood socioeconomic status. It is unlikely that social drift would manifest as persons with mental disorder moving to neighbourhoods with poor built environment, within strata of overall neighbourhood socioeconomic status. Also, the observed associations were independent of individual income.his suggests that conditional on income levels, persons with depression are more likely to be living in neighbourhoods with poor quality built environments. Again, it seems unlikely to expect that within income strata persons with depressive symptoms will be more likely to move to or remain in poor quality urban areas. Reverse causation, however, may be an explanation for these findings; people with depression may be less likely to pay attention to their usual activities, including taking care of the built environment in which they live. (p.825)

Friends and Countrymen!

We are back at it again.We had our first class today, and I am starting my workbook RIGHTNOWCANYOUBELIEVEITYOUCANHIGHFIVEMELATER. SO! The brief (in summary) is to create a photographic book including 1500-2000 words. The theme of the project is still site and place but this time focusing on

• the built environment
• ecology, nature, and the artificial
• utopia and/or distopia

I had a book printed online through blurb last year so, unless my subject/project ideas instruct me otherwise, I'm hoping to do a handmade book. Hopefully with exciting pop-up type stuff!

We shall see.