Psychology On the Street

November 14, 2015


On this chilly Saturday, seven volunteers (including myself) gathered at the Urbanspace Gallery at 401 Richmond St. W. to participate in a "psychogeographic" walk of some of the neighbouring streets.

This was the latest in a series of walks that had already taken place in New York City, Berlin and Mumbai, to measure ordinary peoples' emotions and reactions to the urban environment. You can see their website at psychologyonthestreet.com.

The study was being conducted by Dr. Collin Ellard and some students from Waterloo University. We were greeted by one of the students at the Gallery, and given electronic devices to wear. One was worn like a headband, and measured brain activity, like an EEG. It even measured our eye-blinks! The other was worn like a wristwatch, and measured things like pulse and body temperature.
These were to gauge autonomic responses.
We were also given an Android device, much like a smartphone, on which we were asked to record our conscious reactions to the places we looked at, by answering questions (on a 1-to-5 scale) like "How old is this area?", "How safe is this area?", "How much traffic is in this area?" etc.

Each place was chosen according to a few factors, like density, age, noise level, traffic, and so on.

Our first stop was at the intersection of Queen W. and Portland St., where we took in this view:

As with each stop, we were given one minute to study this area, then asked to answer the questions, as I mentioned above.

The next stop was this alley looking south to King St. W.:

Then, on to this view of condos along Stewart St., near Wellington:

Next was Clarence Square, at Spadina and Wellington, looking a little drab this time of year:

Our next stop was a parking garage near a couple of construction sites, on Peter St. south of Richmond, where I didn't get a picture...

...then it was back to Richmond & Spadina, where we were instructed to take a look west at the intersection:

We had done our tasks as instructed at each stop; by the time we got here, it was starting to get quite cold, and we were glad to be able to get back indoors.


Once back inside the Urbanspace Gallery, we were "debriefed" by our guide, and encouraged to give comments or ask questions. It had been a good learning experience for all of us.

It is to be hoped that the results of these studies will be shared with urban planners and developers, so that future urban spaces can be created in ever-growing, ever-changing cities - that take into account the positive (and negative) ways their citizens react to the place they live in.


For my part, I realized at one point that I don't really know this city that well, after all, and felt quite humbled. We passed by independent coffee shops, pubs, restaurants and stores that I'd never seen, or even heard of.
It made me realize how often, when I spend time walking around downtown, that I stick to major streets like King, Dundas, Queen, Bloor or Richmond, and not lesser-known streets that may well yield small rewards, like an undiscovered shop, or a breathtaking view of the skyline.

I still have much to learn about my city.

Some Fall Colours In Toronto

Fall has arrived (did you set your clock back last night?), and with it comes an explosion of colour as our deciduous trees shed their leaves for the coming winter.

In downtown Toronto, there aren't too many places where you can get the most spectacular colours; for that, you need to go to the Rouge Valley, or right out of town altogether. As time goes by so quickly these days, it seems like there are only a few days of colourful leaves in the city, then whoomph! they're all on the ground.
Nevertheless, there are some amazing shows to be had south of Bloor St., if you slow down and look closely. There don't have to be blazing oranges or reds in order to catch your eye.

Let me show you what I mean:

First, looking south from the Prince Edward Viaduct over Rosedale Valley Road, there are some nice varieties of colour, from green to a deep orange:

Pix taken with smartphone, but colours came out quite nicely!

And farther along in the same valley, more colours. I was particularly taken with the leaves at right just nicely turning from green to yellow, and the reddish-pink of the ones in the centre:

Right near Castle Frank subway station is this brilliantly yellow maple tree...

And, even though I was essentially shooting blind through the "Luminous Veil" over the Don Valley, I still got a good shot of some great orange/rust/red colours along Bayview Ave., south of Bloor:

Finally, in Withrow Park, a couple of more maples going from yellow to orange:

You can see how quickly the leaves are falling here, so, yes, there is just a small window of time available to see these things, and to get a few snaps.


Like I said, Algonquin Park it ain't, but if you "go placidly amid the noise and haste," and just simply stop and take a look around, you will often see beautiful things right in front of you.