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Aesthetics and Psychological Effects of Fractal Based Design

Highly prevalent in nature, fractal patterns possess self-similar components that repeat at varying size scales. The perceptual experience of human-made environments can be impacted with inclusion of these natural patterns. Previous work has demonstrated consistent trends in preference for and compl...

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Autores principales: Robles, Kelly E., Roberts, Michelle, Viengkham, Catherine, Smith, Julian H., Rowland, Conor, Moslehi, Saba, Stadlober, Sabrina, Lesjak, Anastasija, Lesjak, Martin, Taylor, Richard P., Spehar, Branka, Sereno, Margaret E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8416160/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34484047
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.699962
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author Robles, Kelly E.
Roberts, Michelle
Viengkham, Catherine
Smith, Julian H.
Rowland, Conor
Moslehi, Saba
Stadlober, Sabrina
Lesjak, Anastasija
Lesjak, Martin
Taylor, Richard P.
Spehar, Branka
Sereno, Margaret E.
author_facet Robles, Kelly E.
Roberts, Michelle
Viengkham, Catherine
Smith, Julian H.
Rowland, Conor
Moslehi, Saba
Stadlober, Sabrina
Lesjak, Anastasija
Lesjak, Martin
Taylor, Richard P.
Spehar, Branka
Sereno, Margaret E.
author_sort Robles, Kelly E.
collection PubMed
description Highly prevalent in nature, fractal patterns possess self-similar components that repeat at varying size scales. The perceptual experience of human-made environments can be impacted with inclusion of these natural patterns. Previous work has demonstrated consistent trends in preference for and complexity estimates of fractal patterns. However, limited information has been gathered on the impact of other visual judgments. Here we examine the aesthetic and perceptual experience of fractal ‘global-forest’ designs already installed in humanmade spaces and demonstrate how fractal pattern components are associated with positive psychological experiences that can be utilized to promote occupant wellbeing. These designs are composite fractal patterns consisting of individual fractal ‘tree-seeds’ which combine to create a ‘global fractal forest.’ The local ‘tree-seed’ patterns, global configuration of tree-seed locations, and overall resulting ‘global-forest’ patterns have fractal qualities. These designs span multiple mediums yet are all intended to lower occupant stress without detracting from the function and overall design of the space. In this series of studies, we first establish divergent relationships between various visual attributes, with pattern complexity, preference, and engagement ratings increasing with fractal complexity compared to ratings of refreshment and relaxation which stay the same or decrease with complexity. Subsequently, we determine that the local constituent fractal (‘tree-seed’) patterns contribute to the perception of the overall fractal design, and address how to balance aesthetic and psychological effects (such as individual experiences of perceived engagement and relaxation) in fractal design installations. This set of studies demonstrates that fractal preference is driven by a balance between increased arousal (desire for engagement and complexity) and decreased tension (desire for relaxation or refreshment). Installations of these composite mid-high complexity ‘global-forest’ patterns consisting of ‘tree-seed’ components balance these contrasting needs, and can serve as a practical implementation of biophilic patterns in human-made environments to promote occupant wellbeing.
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spelling pubmed-84161602021-09-04 Aesthetics and Psychological Effects of Fractal Based Design Robles, Kelly E. Roberts, Michelle Viengkham, Catherine Smith, Julian H. Rowland, Conor Moslehi, Saba Stadlober, Sabrina Lesjak, Anastasija Lesjak, Martin Taylor, Richard P. Spehar, Branka Sereno, Margaret E. Front Psychol Psychology Highly prevalent in nature, fractal patterns possess self-similar components that repeat at varying size scales. The perceptual experience of human-made environments can be impacted with inclusion of these natural patterns. Previous work has demonstrated consistent trends in preference for and complexity estimates of fractal patterns. However, limited information has been gathered on the impact of other visual judgments. Here we examine the aesthetic and perceptual experience of fractal ‘global-forest’ designs already installed in humanmade spaces and demonstrate how fractal pattern components are associated with positive psychological experiences that can be utilized to promote occupant wellbeing. These designs are composite fractal patterns consisting of individual fractal ‘tree-seeds’ which combine to create a ‘global fractal forest.’ The local ‘tree-seed’ patterns, global configuration of tree-seed locations, and overall resulting ‘global-forest’ patterns have fractal qualities. These designs span multiple mediums yet are all intended to lower occupant stress without detracting from the function and overall design of the space. In this series of studies, we first establish divergent relationships between various visual attributes, with pattern complexity, preference, and engagement ratings increasing with fractal complexity compared to ratings of refreshment and relaxation which stay the same or decrease with complexity. Subsequently, we determine that the local constituent fractal (‘tree-seed’) patterns contribute to the perception of the overall fractal design, and address how to balance aesthetic and psychological effects (such as individual experiences of perceived engagement and relaxation) in fractal design installations. This set of studies demonstrates that fractal preference is driven by a balance between increased arousal (desire for engagement and complexity) and decreased tension (desire for relaxation or refreshment). Installations of these composite mid-high complexity ‘global-forest’ patterns consisting of ‘tree-seed’ components balance these contrasting needs, and can serve as a practical implementation of biophilic patterns in human-made environments to promote occupant wellbeing. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-08-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8416160/ /pubmed/34484047 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.699962 Text en Copyright © 2021 Robles, Roberts, Viengkham, Smith, Rowland, Moslehi, Stadlober, Lesjak, Lesjak, Taylor, Spehar and Sereno. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Robles, Kelly E.
Roberts, Michelle
Viengkham, Catherine
Smith, Julian H.
Rowland, Conor
Moslehi, Saba
Stadlober, Sabrina
Lesjak, Anastasija
Lesjak, Martin
Taylor, Richard P.
Spehar, Branka
Sereno, Margaret E.
Aesthetics and Psychological Effects of Fractal Based Design
title Aesthetics and Psychological Effects of Fractal Based Design
title_full Aesthetics and Psychological Effects of Fractal Based Design
title_fullStr Aesthetics and Psychological Effects of Fractal Based Design
title_full_unstemmed Aesthetics and Psychological Effects of Fractal Based Design
title_short Aesthetics and Psychological Effects of Fractal Based Design
title_sort aesthetics and psychological effects of fractal based design
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8416160/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34484047
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.699962
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