My colleagues Arran Caza (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) James Birt Oliver Baumann and I are wrapping up a new experimental lab study on the effects of noise on creativity. Excited to share the results soon.
I wrote more in the effects of different spaces and different types of noise on creativity in this piece linked below, excerpt here.
“Think about your favourite cafe. Maybe not the ones you grab a rushed takeaway from on the way to the office, but the ones you love to spend time in.
The design and materials, constantly shifting dynamics, flyers that catch our eye, half-heard ideas, and the buzz of the city around us, all feed into an unconscious melting pot from which ideas, suddenly, and randomly, pop into consciousness at a later time.
This is why the closed campus buildings of many modern organizations can feel as if they are stifling creativity. The mundane routine of the same space with the same people underscored by the hum of the (too cold) air-conditioning can leave us feeling uninspired at best.
Coffee shops have been called ‘third spaces’, places other than our homes or our offices where we can go to get things done. And long before (centuries in fact), Starbucks laid claim to starting this movement, the coffee houses of the Enlightenment were the original coworking spaces. Places to write, think, and engage in serendipitous conversation. Isaac Newton worked from the Grecian Coffee House in London (and also dissected a dolphin there).
And underneath the arches in the gothic architecture of Venice’s Cafe Florian which opened in 1720, Proust and Dickens were frequent visitors, along with Nietschze, Cassanova, and Charlie Chaplin. Hemingway sat in the sun here feeding the pigeons, watching travellers return from across the Adriatic Sea, the Byzantine Empire, and the East.”
Read my full article on creativity, coffee shops, and travel in Central America and subscribe for free here on Substack: https://lnkd.in/gi4XsguB
#work #workplace #thirdspace #creativity #research #workfromanywhere #distributedworkplace
What a fantastic location at WeWork 448 North La Salle! Surrounded by art galleries and restaurants, and with various workspace options from lounges to private offices, it sounds like a perfect hub for innovation in Chicago's River North. Looking forward to scheduling a visit soon!