In Defense of Sensory Abundance: Overcoming Minimalism Fatigue Through Spatial Intimacy
In 1956, two psychologists deliberately built an ugly room. Abraham Maslow and Norbett Mintz set up three spaces at Brandeis. One was beautiful, with good light, decent furniture, and art. One was average, a plain professor's office. The third they made genuinely unpleasant: grey, badly lit, cluttered with junk, styled to resemble a janitor's storeroom. Then they had participants sit in each and rate a series of photographed faces for energy and well-being. People in the beautiful room rated the faces as healthier and more energetic. People in the ugly room rated the same faces as tired and sick. Then the part everyone forgets. The study ran over several weeks, and the examiners, who were supposed to be neutral, started behaving oddly. In the ugly room, they reported headaches, fatigue, irritability and hostility. They finished sessions faster. They found excuses to leave. The room was doing something to people who knew exactly what the experiment was and were trying to ignor...
