Headlamp And Visual Layers

I often wear a headlamp when I am creating.

Especially in low light. I usually set the color to red and wear it like a headband, just doing whatever I’m doing around the house.

It makes me, at the very least, feel more creative. But I wonder about the psychological mechanisms that lead me to feel that way.

Maybe I see more shapes and possibilities literally and figuratively. Perhaps the dim light makes my mind search for visual patterns just a bit more than normal. My “what if” mind is coaxed to begin operating on an unconscious level and I have one small environmental affordance stacked in my creative favor.

Another possible contributor to why I frequently feel more creative with a headlamp on is that it perks me up. It uplifts my mood ever so slightly and it also tells my eyes to stay alert.

Another possible reason I feel more creative with a headlamp on is that a headlamp helps me to register and recognize what’s in front of me, especially in a darkened room. I may see images on a poster more clearly or be able to read text that otherwise would have slipped past my awareness in the darkness. Along these lines, the lamp also focuses my attention like a spotlight that moves to wherever I look. This “spotlight effect” assisting my attention may provide more fodder for unconscious creative digestion because more things register for me. Mechanistically speaking, The spotlight simultaneously reduces the number of things I try to observe from the periphery because those are too dimly lit by comparison.

Yet another possible reason why I feel more creative with a headlamp on is that wearing a headlamp *slightly* increases the mental work I ask of my brain. As a result, it could be that my “monkey mind” (as the Buddhists call it) slows down a little, allowing my creative mind to emerge a little easier.

Along these lines, think of pacing when we talk on the phone or fidgeting with a pen when we are thinking. We often need just a little extra stimulation to get into a flow state.

With the lighting low-ish, shadow- and contrast-driven visual layers will emerge that fall on a spectrum of between what’s head-lamp-illuminated and what’s illuminated by any other light source. These visual layers create more interesting attentional zoom possibilities than your average indoor experience, and, like watching shadow puppets, you can’t help but look for patterns in them.

The interesting visual layers, textures, and details can sometimes lead you to “stare off into space” (mind wander) as you both consciously and subconsciously engage with your space. You may, for example, be resting your attention upon a screen with the borders of the hardware lit red by your headlamp. You may also illuminate your hands if you are typing on a tablet or phone. These visual layers help to create high contrast depth like the way the jagged edges of a canyon look at dusk, or how the sun shines through the leaves of trees. We’re attempting to mimick that visual complexity indoors with a headlamp.

If you have hair that can hang down over your headlamp you get an organic element with many opportunities for unconscious fidgeting or added visual complexity. If your hair can fall over your eyes, even partially, you further gain an opportunity to explore emotional “hiding” through the hair, like the way sunglasses do for us.

That last one (hiding) seems to augment the possibilities of dynamic emotional vulnerability. Hence the term “emo” being associated with hair that falls partly in front of the face.

The hair, the headlamp, and the pen: these are all “environmental affordances.” Affordances here means anything we can use in our environment. Things in our environment “afford” certain activities. A toaster affords toasting bread. It also affords a look in the mirror if it’s surface is metallic. Some affordances can serve very specific purposes (think “can opener”), while other affordances have purposes that are more open-ended (think “cardboard box”).

I intuit that there are some environment affordances that can help us to more regularly achieve creative flow. I am on a quest to identify as many of these helpful affordances as possible. I also want to help you to re-create these affordances in your own spaces. That’s my jam.

Back to visual layers:

Introduce a cool set of shades (sunglasses) to the mix and you get an additional visual layer. I think you’ll find that sunglasses can really “frame” the whole experience for you.

So.

[sorry for that]

In summary, try wearing a headlamp and tinted sunglasses (lighter tinting is preferred) at night in your creative zone. Light some incense, put on some mood lighting and create!

JDF

P.S. Here’s something I made from this picture at Trust The Thread, my creative practice website.