I used posters to continue my investigations into anxiety spaces. I looked in further depth at what factors in a space create feelings of anxiety, mainly the people who are present and the size of the environment.

From this initial thought I developed my own ideas of what spaces would be interesting to explore. From the cultural probes it emerged that small spaces induced claustrophobia in some people and that being in a confined space with other people caused anxiety. I wanted to somehow reach a wider audience and capture their feelings in this specific environment, there and then. I put up the posters in toilet cubicles hoping that this would be a private enough space for people to react and add comments.

Through these posters I really wanted to find out what features of this space would cause anxious feelings. Is it really the size of the space? Or the intense atmosphere caused by strangers in that environment? I received a lot of feedback that was helpful and more varied than what I expected.

Not all of the posters were received positively. A few were vandalised and not included in the portfolio. This didn’t affect the outcome greatly. I think when doing such unpredictable experiments I have learned not to rely on the response of the public and so any information is a positive outcome.

The comments on the posters turned out to be more of a reflection on the method being used rather than the subject. I deliberately made the posters seem tongue n cheek to encourage people to open up and be honest about how they felt. The result was a mostly honest account of the fears that occur while using a small toilet cubicle. Some people seemed to love the privacy of the space and used it as an escape from wherever else they had been. Other people commented on the presence of other people being an issue.

I was surprised at the amount of feedback that was on the posters. Although it was not all relevant it was a good place for people to release their thoughts and I think it proved to be a success.

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