We Look at Inkblots to Learn About Ourselves

The practical realities of spatial perception and the reception of architecture have long resisted easy classification, and, if we wish to design inclusive spaces, “getting it right” will be no easy matter of specifying the right decibels, frequency, texture, lumens, or hue. People are wonderfully diverse, as are their aesthetic preferences. Moods, previous experiences, contexts, and idiosyncratic sensory processing all impact how an environment is received by occupants. While psychologists have developed a laboratory model for measuring stimuli as discrete inputs, most people process aesthetic experiences as complex mixtures of expectation, meaning, and stimulus.