The Psychogeography of Everyday Life Free

FREE PLACES OF THE HEART: THE PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY OF EVERYDAY LIFE PDF

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life Places of the Heart by Colin Ellard. Here he offers an entirely new way to understand our cities—and ourselves. As he describes the Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life he and other scientists have gained from new technologies, he assesses the influence these technologies will have on our evolving environment and asks what kind of world we are, and should be, creating. A cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Waterloo and director of its Urban Realities Laboratory, he lives in Kitchener, Ontario. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. More Details Original Title. Other Editions 9. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Places of the Heartplease sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life details. More filters. Sort order. Sep 01, Laurie rated it really liked it. How plants make any place seem better- and make people less apt to destroy things. How featureless concrete expanses make a person nervous and unwilling to linger. How surroundings can awe, suffocate, sooth, or tempt a person think the insides of shopping malls. He explains how and why people have these reactions, and how they can be used to manipulate people. He also goes into how digital technology is changing things, and how it could be used to alienate or integrate. This is important stuff for any architect, designer, or city planner. How many places do we frequent that affect us in a similar way without our ever being aware of it? The book Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life technical but easily readable. May 01, Jon rated it it was ok. When I finished this I thought that I must've missed something. The intersection of architecture and neuroscience that the title promised and the author believed he delivered just wasn't there. Given his credentials, Ellard must be a smart guy. Unfortunately, his writing makes him sound like one of those people who expend a lot of effort trying to sound smart. This hit on neuroscience. It hit on architecture. There was even a bit of overlap, but not enough to deliver. Mostly, it was rambling throu When I finished this I thought that I must've missed something. Mostly, it was rambling through loosely related subjects squeezed through an unnecessarily over-academic sieve. And I'm fine with academic, but this feels like the bad retail manager trapping you in the break room and giving you "life lessons" when all you want is to drink your coffee and stare out the window. And how can I possibly take any text seriously that mentions advances in "dildonics. View 1 comment. Sep 03, Meredith rated it liked it. This book is generally about the psychology of place referred to as psychogeographythough I feel Ellard strays in a few chapters that deal with technology. A section on the use of paper maps vs lists of directions on phone or sat. I do feel Ellard sometimes conflates an issue. Twice he talks about his children not being suitably impressed by a dinosaur bone but opting for the video of how the dinosaur looked when it was alive also moon rocks and this being an issue of devaluing of authenticity blah Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life blah. Those are two totally separate things and I don't think you can compare them. If they didn't feel any difference looking at a real dino bone vs a plaster mold, then that's an issue to talk about. Just like I'd rather see the pictures and footage taken on the moon by the astronauts than look at a moon rock in a case vs in a room full of rocks and minerals I will gravitate toward a moon rock. Pretty interesting book generally well written, though I felt it strayed from the stated purpose too often. Not the best of the popular science genre, but not the worst either. Jun 15, Nurlan Imangaliyev rated it really liked it. How do certain places, cities, buildings and devices affect us, our perceptions of ourselves and our lives? You can find some great research-based answers in this book. Apr 04, L. Although the title of this book, Places of the Heart Bellevue Library, might suggest a romance novel, it is not. Instead author Colin Ellard has written about why we seek out certain kinds of places and how the evolutionary roots behind our choices might be overturned by virtual reality. He calls this emerging science -- a melding of architecture and urban planning with behavioral psychology -- psychogeography. I found the book an amazing mash-up of lopsided and unanchored summaries of ps Although the title of this book, Places of the Heart Bellevue Library, might suggest a romance novel, it is not. I found the book an amazing mash-up of lopsided and unanchored summaries of psychological research coupled with the skimmed highlights of genetics, set amid the author's opinions and warnings. But what really struck me about the book were the paragraphs. They were about one page in length and averaged six sentences filled with so many dependent clauses that I almost had to diagram them to figure out what was being said. Lurking inside were some interesting things, like our preference for curved surfaces rather than straight lines, why big box stores all look alike and no one seems to care, why we seek stimulation over reality, and the difference video presentations are making in the teaching of science. Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life 23, BookishStitcher rated it it was amazing. This book was a fascinating exploration of the place where urban development meets psychology. View 2 comments. Jun 12, Neira rated it it was amazing. Great reference book about psychogeography in modern day cities. A thing that stayed with me was the comment about the Holocaust monument in Berlin—that kind of perception, if you know it you know it. Nov 15, Chuck Erion rated it really liked it Shelves: currents. As a neuroscientist, he focuses on ways to measure our response to both the built environment and nature. His first book looked at mental mapping Where Am I? Places of the Heart: the Psychogeography of Everyday Life, his second book was released in mid It is being translated into several languages and published around the world. Why does this matter? Why should a psychologist have a say in this? Because Ellard brings tools to the design board that should help ensure more positive responses to urban environment, from the mundane of alleyways to the awe-inspiring cathedral or city hall. Early in the book, he shows that the layout, sound and light design of casinos is purposed to make gamblers stay longer and spend more. Long stretches of blank walls, the streetscapes of some stores and office building, are BORING — but what does this do to pedestrians and residents? Ellard suggests that vandalism, addictions and other petty crimes may result. He cites a Vancouver survey where participants reported loneliness as their most significant issue in urban life, before economics or lifestyle. We spend increasing hours trolling Facebook but have fewer real friends, i. Increasingly, the digital world is part of our urban experience. His lab includes Virtual Reality helmets where participants can experience such settings, figuratively well beyond the walls of the lab. When you consider the far reaches of space and time, your eyes roll upwards. The same eye roll can accompany intense spiritual experiences, meditation or hallucinatory trances. Our eyes are drawn upward by the columns Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life arches of a Gothic cathedral. GPS on our smartphones means almost never getting lost but, if we follow online recommendations, never discovering a restaurant, store or offbeat neighbourhood firsthand. Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life | Quill and Quire

Ellard observes that we hardly notice the places we inhabit unless they are beautiful or dreary, but between these two poles are vast networks of human interactions within physical spaces. Ellard explains that design of place has always existed from the earliest age of our species, through the rise of agricultural settlements, the industrial age, and the birth of megacities. People have been designing their world all along, even if motivations were often subconscious. The creation of the wall, for instance, brought on a revolution in human self-conception and behavior. Before walls, people lived with little or no notion of privacy. After walls, the concept of private and public, of the inner and the outer space, developed into a paramount human concern. Almost everyone in the world experiences built space on a daily basis—in our homes, our workplaces, our institutional buildings, and our places of entertainment and education. Through virtual reality technology, we are on the cutting edge of a revolution in how we utilize place. Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life recently, scientists had rather limited tools to examine how people used their built environments, but with the arrival of detailed brain imaging, hand-held GPS devices like smart phones, and virtual reality chambers, psychologists, architects, and city and urban planners can study and map how people use space, and then employ that data to build accordingly. Ellard cites studies that show people respond favorably to natural, curving spaces, and negatively to straight lines and sharp contours:. We are attracted to certain shapes and colors, especially those that contain some of the same elements found in nature. We gravitate to shapes of spaces that provide some privacy and feelings of security. If nature is the primal place of both comfort and discovery, we can use virtual technology Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life introduce natural characteristics into our rooms and places of work. Such spaces should, the argument goes, increase well-being. Whether it is something as low-tech as a TV screen broadcasting natural scenes in a windowless office, or as high-tech as virtually projected, organically shaped objects in our environment, technology can satisfy our yearning for nature, even when we live in a city. Of course, taken to extremes, vibrant places can cause anxiety. This is especially true for those living in urban areas. Cities, while stimulating, are also hothouses of anxiety. Ellard proposes technological solutions to this problem, such as using smartphones to warn people to avoid those areas of town that cause stress. The sensitive design of spaces can even help us come to terms with our own mortality. Such massive building projects as Angkor Wat, the Great Pyramids, and Chartres Cathedral are built both to manage and minimize the constant reminders of our own death. The design of places that inspire awe stabilizes individual human life by placing it in the content of the wider collective social or religious values of a culture. Such places help people transcend their psychological and physical limitations. Ellard cautions that the brave new virtual world may also be used for electronic spying, but he believes the benefits will outweigh the costs. Places of the Heart is powerfully and comprehensively written. For most readers, this book will be their first exposure to the study of place. Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life such, it is an exceptional introduction to a vital part of the human experience. Places of the Heart | Bellevue Literary Press

Welcome back! Our libraries are open with limited hoursnew safety guidelines and updated services including curbside pickup. Finding items Advanced search Start Over. Availability I Want It. Summary: "Our surroundings can powerfully affect our thoughts, emotions, and physical responses, whether we're awed Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life the Grand Canyon or Hagia Sophia, panicked in a crowded room, soothed by a walk in the park, or tempted in casinos and shopping malls. In Places of the Heart, Colin Ellard explores how our homes, workplaces, cities, and nature--places we escape to and can't escape from--have influenced us throughout history, and how our brains and bodies respond to different types of real and virtual space. As he describes the insight he and other scientists have gained from new technologies, he assesses the influence these technologies will have on our evolving environment and asks what kind of world we are, and should be, creating"-- "A Selection of the Library of Science, History, and Military Book Clubs "One of the finest science writers I've ever read. Here he offers an entirely new way to understand Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life cities-and ourselves. In Places of the Heart, Colin Ellard explores how our homes, workplaces, cities, and nature-places we escape to and can't escape from-have influenced us throughout history, and how our brains and bodies respond to different types of real and virtual space. As he describes the insight he and other scientists have gained from new technologies, he assesses the influence these technologies will have on our evolving environment and asks what kind of world we are, and should be, creating. A cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Waterloo and director of its Urban Realities Laboratory, he lives in Kitchener, Ontario. View MARC record catkey: