Fairfield Color Asylum: A History of Violence

Not all violence involves an act or demonstration of sheer brute force intended to hurt, maim, or kill. Some psychologists argue violence is a matter of perception: an involuntary physiological response to certain stimuli, concepts and/or messaging that is sharpened over time through repetition and exposure. For some, repetition is useful when forming healthy habits. One common myth suggests it takes a full "21 days" for an old bad habit to die and a new good habit to set in.  But what if we change just two words, so that in 21 days, an old "good" habit dies and a new "bad" habit emerges? And what if over the course of those 21 days while the bad habit (or bad behavior) crops up into existence, a particular shade of light blue-green emerges as well, coats the walls, forms the backdrop of the room, the casing of the environment. This blue-green backdrop becomes intimately associated with the newly-formed habit and the two become linked, bonded, interconnected. Perhaps we tend to think of light blue as a passive, calming color, like the particular shade of blue we might see in a nursery or pediatrician's office. Now imagine yourself being confined to a 10ft x 10ft concrete observation room for 21 days. Imagine the particulars of your environment: a thick steel grate covering the window, a convex shatterproof mirror mounted high up in the corner near the ceiling, a metal sink, a toothbrush, a pillow, a hard porcelain toilet, and color--ahhh the color, yes yes, pay particular attention to the color. It will consume you.

Leave a comment

All comments are moderated before being published