Pioneer Works hosts Colin Ellard, author of Places of the Heart, for a special series of walking tours and public discussions:

Over the course of the weekend researchers will take small groups of participants on walks designed to explore the psychology of urban life by measuring responses to a set of carefully curated locations throughout the Red Hook area. Participants will be asked to carry a specially programmed phone and to wear a small headband that records their patterns of brain activity. Our overall goal is to map the relationships between place, comfort, happiness, arousal (both negative and positive), perceptions of risk, responses to natural features and to urban design variables. The walk will take approximately one hour, following which participants will have an opportunity to discuss their experiences in a debriefing session.

 

On Sunday, October 25th a culminating discussion with Colin and other guests will consider the data collected from walks as a way of gaining insight into our urban environment.