With the development of our ideas, it had become apparent to us all that not only were we looking at cause and effect but we were looking at the cause and effect of mood!
So we then asked the question of what actually affects a person’s mood. The answer is limitless for everything has a different effect on different individuals. What one person may find to be calming and relaxing, another may find it to be a complete contrast and find it to be very stressful.
Music is a key factor which generally affects individuals in different ways due to their personal taste and preference. Within our multimedia performance we are considering using music in a big way to see whether or not that can help to change to atmosphere and the mood of the whole room or just individuals. Our current idea is to have various playlists already installed on an Ipod, allowing audience members to pick a certain playlist dependent on their initial mood. This will go on throughout the whole durational performance so different individuals can come up and change the song / playlist at any given time.
One thing I looked at in relation to mood was colour. Colour can be a big relation on how a person is feeling, whether it’s through their choice of clothes or specific colours they choose to create a picture etc. Different colours represent different feelings and emotions. It is said that:
‘Red – The most emotionally intense color, red stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing. It is also the color of love. Red clothing gets noticed and makes the wearer appear heavier. Since it is an extreme color, red clothing might not help people in negotiations or confrontations. Red cars are popular targets for thieves. In decorating, red is usually used as an accent. Decorators say that red furniture should be perfect since it will attract attention.
Pink – The most romantic color, pink, is more tranquilizing. Sports teams sometimes paint the locker rooms used by opposing teams bright pink so their opponents will lose energy.
Blue – The color of the sky and the ocean, blue is one of the most popular colors. It causes the opposite reaction as red. Peaceful, tranquil blue causes the body to produce calming chemicals, so it is often used in bedrooms. Blue can also be cold and depressing. Fashion consultants recommend wearing blue to job interviews because it symbolizes loyalty. People are more productive in blue rooms. Studies show weightlifters are able to handle heavier weights in blue gyms.
Green – Currently the most popular decorating color, green symbolizes nature. It is the easiest color on the eye and can improve vision. It is a calming, refreshing color. People waiting to appear on TV sit in “green rooms” to relax. Hospitals often use green because it relaxes patients. Brides in the Middle Ages wore green to symbolize fertility. Dark green is masculine, conservative, and implies wealth. However, seamstresses often refuse to use green thread on the eve of a fashion show for fear it will bring bad luck.
Yellow – Cheerful sunny yellow is an attention getter. While it is considered an optimistic color, people lose their tempers more often in yellow rooms, and babies will cry more. It is the most difficult color for the eye to take in, so it can be overpowering if overused. Yellow enhances concentration, hence its use for legal pads. It also speeds metabolism.
Purple – The color of royalty, purple connotes luxury, wealth, and sophistication. It is also feminine and romantic. However, because it is rare in nature, purple can appear artificial’ (Jonhson, 2007).
For one of the stations we agreed that the use of colour may be useful in seeing what kind of mood an audience member may be in. We were thinking of leaving an array of coloured paint / pens and paper in a section of the performance space, inviting audience members to draw or write what ever they wanted. From the result we would then look at what the most common colour used was and whether the image created reflected the choice of colour. An example may be if a person is feeling happy they may create the image of a yellow sun.
We also looked at other aspects that may affect an individuals mood such as the way in which people respond with one another. If somebody is nice or say’s something nice, it is more than likely going to have a positive effect in contrast with somebody saying something hurtful or upsetting. As a group we looked at a video by Improv everywhere called Say something nice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwEYYI-AGWs
This video inspired us to go out into the community and do our own miniature experiment. We went around shops and streets in lincoln and ask people if they could say something nice so we could record it? The response to this was very mixed. Some people had no problem and made certain comments like
- you have a really nice smile
- have a nice day
- you look beautiful
This was all recorded on a member of the groups phone, and we had an idea of getting a collection different people saying nice things / phrases that we could merge together and play on loop throughout our performance. We thought that this would help effect the mood of the audience members in the performance space, by hearing nice positive comments.
One thing we noticed when walking round Lincoln asking people to say something nice is that lots of people found it difficult. Nobody could generally say a nice comment on the spot, they had to have a moment to think about it. This was interesting to us as it showed just how hard it is for people to say something nice.
With us being human beings, we are seen as social creature. We looked into this further as a group and discussed how social aspects of everyday life effect our mood. We thought about how we could manipulate our mood through various exercise. These ideas included:
- Not being able to use our mobile phones
- Not being able to use the internet or communicate through it
- Not being able to eat anything
- Not going to sleep, seeing how many days we could push ourselves to stay awake
- Stop smoking
- Wearing the same clothes everyday for a week
- Not using and source of technology, including watching TV among other things.
Our idea was to see if we would physically be able to complete some of these tasks and just how much of a drastic change it would have on our mood and ourselves socially. Majority of people communicate these days through the use of technology, whether it be through the use of phones, texting, online networking sites such as Facebook and twitter and the use of emails. Not many people communicate without the use of technology.
Looking at the exercises of no sleep and stop smoking would indefinably have an effect on an individuals mood. People use smoking as a stress relief so if you take that away, they are going to become very irritable and different environments will effect their mood even more, the same applies to having no sleep. People need sleep to help them function properly. If you was to deprive an individual of sleep, not just emotional factors would affect them but they would suffer physically as well.
Work cited: Johnson, David (2007) Colour Psychology, Online: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1.html (accessed March 25th 2013).
Impov everywhere (2011) Say something nice, Online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwEYYI-AGWs (Accessed March 15th 2013).