How art that reflects nature can be good for us

This is the question that award-winning artist Mark Ware has been investigating over the past few years, with support from the Arts Council.

Mark has been working with neuroscientists and psychologists to explore and measure the effect that artistic visual and auditory stimuli - based on the natural world - has on people. His findings show that natural sounds and sights can provoke positive psychological states, with the potential to improve people’s wellbeing and aid stress recovery.

The idea for the work came to Mark when he was giving a sound workshop to children with autism and cerebral palsy. One girl appeared to respond particularly positively to the natural sound of the sea and much less well to the artificial sound of a music box. “Her carers were amazed,” noted Mark. And this begged the question: “Is there something inherent in natural sounds that we all respond to?”

Nature and mental health

Inspired by this experience, Mark embarked upon the Wavelength Project, supported with a grant of £43,927 from our National Lottery funded Grants for the Arts scheme. Mark collected field samples of natural and artificial sounds and then, in collaboration with neuroscientists at the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science in Brighton, he played these sounds back to volunteers and recorded their brain activity using an MRI scanner. Findings suggested that exposure to natural sounds may be beneficial to mental health, by reducing the likelihood of self-referential and evaluative thoughts, while improving broad attentional focus.

Intrigued by the results and their potential, Mark shifted his focus to the visual. At the end of 2015 he received a further Grants for the arts award for Reflecting Nature, a project in which he worked with psychologist Dr Nichola Street, a lecturer and researcher at Staffordshire University’s School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise.

The pair created a series of new digital artworks which use imagery of the natural environment and symmetrical patterns. The artworks were exhibited at a range of different venues, including Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre and Gloucester and Exeter Cathedrals.

Attendees to the Reflecting Nature exhibition were invited to take part in the research, by observing the artworks while psychologists used eye tracking equipment to monitor them performing specially designed response tasks. All this will be analysed to help create artworks that Mark and Dr Street hope will evoke positive psychological states.

Subjective experiences

Mark says, “Most of my art since having a severe stroke in 1996 has been touched by my disability. I have become increasingly interested in how my subjective experiences have been altered by my brain injury. The Reflecting Nature collaboration is allowing me to explore subjects that are of profound interest to all artists: why we create art, how we respond to art and how art is intrinsically linked to our interactions with the natural environment."

Art is intrinsically linked to our interactions with the natural environment

Dr Street said “Psychologists have long known that the environment in which we spend time is important in terms of health and wellbeing, and that nature has particularly beneficial properties. The collaboration has been an eye-opening experience, comparing and contrasting the artistic and scientific ways of working and how we see the world. For me the most exciting part of the project lies in understanding the impact that visual stimuli can have with a view to creating psychologically positive environments where mobility or choice of location is low - such as hospitals and schools."

Deep space missions

The results of the project so far point to some important considerations about how we might create immersive environments that are able to replicate some of the positive effects of exposure to nature.

In a recent article about Mark’s work in the New Scientist, Oliver Angerer of the German Aerospace Centre in Cologne suggests that Mark’s work might prove useful in the design of deep-space missions: “Understanding the possible beneficial effects of natural environments and their mechanisms may allow us to adapt space habitats to better suit human needs. If this was purely based in science, it would involve generations of work, investigations, proofs and developments. As an artist, you can move faster, you can take giant leaps."

As an artist, you can move faster, you can take giant leaps

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Full cast and chorus from the all-female musical Dreamers at Oldham Coliseum Theatre. Photo © Joel C Fildes / Oldham Coliseum Theatre