This document is the first issue of the Hive Mind magazine from Flamingo's Cultural Intelligence team. It focuses on the theme of "Forgotten Landscapes" and explores a growing fascination with abandoned and hidden spaces. Contributors include experts from various fields who provide perspectives on why people are drawn to decaying places as a counterpoint to modern obsession with newness and perfection. The issue features a photo essay and articles that discuss concepts like "ruin porn," the Japanese aesthetic of "wabi sabi," and how exploring forgotten places can help provide a sense of perspective.

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A backlash against our obsession with the now

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editors letter
Hello and welcome to our first edition of the Hive
Mind Magazine, from the Cultural Intelligence team
at Flamingo. Hive Mind is our global community of
experts. In the Cultural Intelligence team we work
with experts to understand the social, cultural and
behavioural shifts that define the New Mainstream.
We believe that there is more than one type of
expert. From the Culture Thinkers, the gurus and
commentators, to the Culture Makers, the people who
are busy pushing the boundaries forwards by their
daily enterprise and habits.
We have been building this community for a few
months now, and have gathered together some
really exciting people who we work with in many
different ways to add value and brand building
ideas for our clients.
We hand pick experts across industries, geographies
and communities, who can show us and tell us about
real culture in action. We build longer, closer, more
connected relationships with our experts, to give us
richer cultural intelligence.
Each issue of the magazine focuses on a different
topic,andshowcasestherichnessanddiversityofour
expert community.
In this issue we have worked with psychologists,
architects, academics and heritage campaigners.
We also introduce our ‘expert hero’ of this edition,
Liam Young, an futurist, critic, curator and all round
interesting man.
This edition is all about ‘Forgotten Landscapes’, a
provocative counter trend to the accelerated churn
of productivity and Now-ism of today’s world. By
exploring the physical ‘forgotten spaces’ of our world,
and the fascination they hold for people, we explore a
new way to connect with space – be that built space
or brand space.
We hope this magazine interests and intrigues you!
Pleasegetincontactifyou’dliketotalkabouthowour
expert offer can help you.
Happy reading,
Amy Rait And Miriam Rayman from the CI team
culturalintelligence@flamingogroup.com
p04Contributors
p05 Photoessay
p06 Forgottenlandscapes
p10 Socialanalytics
p12 Infocus
p13 Naoto Matsumura
p14 Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
p15 Shahira Hammad
p16 Unknown Fields Division
p18 The Chettinad Mansions
p19 Detroit
20 Hashima Island
p22 Whyweneedit
p24 Brandtake-outs
Photography (High Line NYC) Robocop vs. Bambi by JMacPherson
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contributors
Liam Youngcurrently lives and works in London as an independ-
ent designer, futurist, critic and curator. He is one of the coordina-
tors of the nomadic design studio Unknown Fields Division and is
a founder of the think tank Tomorrows Thoughts Today, a group
whose work explores the consequences of fantastic, perverse and
underrated urbanisms.
Phil Dobson (BSc (Hons), MBPsS, DHyp, BSCH (Assoc)) is the
Founder of BrainWorkshops. He has a degree in Psychology and
is a fully accredited Clinical Hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner.
He set up BrainWorkshops to enable individuals to learn how to
use their brains better; applying what we know about the brain to
enhance people’s lives and experience.
BernardDragonandMichelAdmentarearchitectsanddesigners,
restorers and campaigners. Originally from France, they’ve collabo-
rated on architecture projects such as the National Grand Theater
inBejing.TravellingtoChettinard’s(TamilNadu,India)searchingfor
reclaimed materials, they fell in love with the place and restored one
of the palaces into an award winning luxury hotel, Saratha Villas.
Barbara Kaucky (Dipl Ing Arch RIBA) is a director of erect archi-
tecture, a London based architecture practice, which she founded
withSusanneTutschin2002.Togetherwiththeirteam,Barbaraand
Susanneworkondesignandusercentredarchitectural,publicrealm
and community engagement projects seeking to create welcoming
and enjoyable spaces, which people take on as their own.
Shahira Hammad is an architect from Alexandria, Egypt. She
holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Applied
Arts, die Angewandte, Vienna where she graduated with distinc-
tion in 2012. Shahira is interested in architecture as an interdisci-
plinary field. Shahira’s projects have been published and exhibited
internationally.
Bryan James is an interactive designer with 5 years experience,
working at Epiphany Search based in Leeds. He created an inter-
active digital experience of Hashima Island, Japan. When Google
released the street view photography, he wanted to reveal this hid-
den island and its stories, so creating an atmospheric tour of this
island abandoned in the 1970s.
A Glimpse into Manhattan’s Future?
by Dee de Lara, , Flamingo NY
Within a three-block radius of my East Village
apartment, empty lots sit vacant and fenced off
with no apparent intention of being developed or
renewed. In a place where space is at an absolute
premium, these seemingly abandoned pieces of
land feel like liminal spaces sandwiched between
hubs of activity: apartment buildings where ten-
ants live squeezed wall-to-wall on top of each oth-
er, and stores and restaurants where money and
ideas are exchanged 24-7.
People flutter past these every single day with-
out the urge to peer in and see beyond the locked
chain link gates or poster-adorned plywood. Are
these haunted, sacred spaces in a city where no
space is off limits, ghosts of buildings past or pre-
monitions of the urban future? And who holds the
key to the locks? Right now, they just sit undis-
turbed and unattended, quietly isolated from New
York City’s cacophonous buzz.
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“These vast empty spaces make us feel in a way which alleviates us
from that agonising sense of self importance and ego-ism which is
otherwise clinging to us like a bad smell…Anything which puts us
into perspective, in some way. Its a nice way of feeling small.”
Alain de Botton, School of Life Sunday Service, ‘On Pessimism’.
Forgottenlandscapes Amodernloveaffair by Amy Rait
When Liam Young and Kate Davies launched
their Unknown Fields Division, leading tourists
on annual field trips into unknown or forgot-
ten landscapes such as the Roswell crash site
or the Chernobyl exclusion zone, they did so as
part of an architectural research practice. They
had no idea these expeditions would generate
such a devoted following or ever be featured on
the cover of Icon Magazine.
Pioneers like Liam and Kate have a mission - to
‘bear witness’ to these forgotten places, to bring
back stories and lessons about how our lives as
modern city dwellers are affected by these places,
and vice versa, both now and in the future. They
seek out the places on the fringes of our existence,
such as the Madagascan rainforest, or mining com-
munities in the Australian outback. They search for
the wonderful, the deserted, the extreme.
But beyond this intriguing initiative, and beyond
this ecological agenda, we are seeing a growing
fascination with forgotten places of all kinds. Peo-
ple are yearning to find, and experience, aban-
doned, hidden spaces, both far away and also
closer to home. This is a symptom of a wider need
people have to create perspective beyond today’s
myopic and superficial churn of the new.
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“Most
people don’t
understand
what the
word
‘decadent’
means….
They think it
means ‘fancy’
and ‘luxury’
but actually,
it’s something
in a state of
decay.”
Andre Walker, designer and
fashion consultant in an interview
with Katharine Zarrella
“These places
help us reclaim
something we have
lost. They provide
a connection to our
world, our place
in time, and place
within nature.”
Phil Dobson, psychologist.
Forgotten landscapes
Decadence and ‘Decay Porn’
The burgeoning photographic trend focusing on
these spaces is known as ‘ruin porn’ or ‘decay porn’
and demonstrates the allure of decay. There’s an
attraction to an imperfect, crumbling world as a
backlash to the over polished sterile minimalism
of today. “Our problem with now is that we are ob-
sessed with production and perfection” says ar-
chitect Shahira Hammad, “We’re in denial, ignoring
the fact that we will die someday, our own eventu-
al demise. Our modern buildings show our denial,
they are rigid, perfectly aligned, clean, functional
modern spaces.”
Our current attraction to the decaying is also a wry
look at the dystopia on the horizon from our hy-
per-superficial consumerist lifestyles. Here there is
something of the last days of Rome, or the last days
before the French revolution.
We live in a world where weakness and imperfec-
tion are invisible, blinked out of existence. We are
one of the first generations to have not seen death,
up close and personal, as death becomes the pre-
serve of hospitals and hospices. We no longer have
mourning around open caskets. This feels normal
to us, but compared to other societies (such as
ancient Amazonian tribes where the dead were re-
buried in the family hearth to keep them close and
bless the remaining family), we are an oddity. “Our
reality is really quite skewed,” says psychologist
Phil Dobson, “we live focused at the small end of
the scale, zoomed in on just one part of the human
experience and so we miss out on understanding
scale and true meaning.”
By living huddled up in the small beginnings of na-
ture’s life cycle, it creates a disjoint with the reality
of life, and nature. Is it any wonder we fetishize the
ruin and decay of forgotten landscapes?
Paradise lost
We’ve grown up with the mirage that hoteliers and
lotteries peddle to us, of our own little piece of par-
adise, timeless and unchanging, unspoilt and undis-
covered, that soothes the soul and wipes away the
trivialities of an imperfect life.
The search for a more and more authentic ‘para-
dise’ has not been successful. As a more sophis-
ticated and knowledgeable generation grows up,
they are no longer seeking this perfect paradise,
but are looking for another kind of experience, in
unexpected places. Bradley L Garrett, author of Ex-
plore Everything; Place Hacking the City, suggests
that people are “driven by their need to explore in
an age where everything is mapped, to find the hid-
den in a world where we can look up anything”.
So out of the ashes of this unrequited dream comes
a search for something more interesting, and at-
tainable – the search for real places with a depth of
history and connection. Places that tell the story of
man, time and nature. In a world of self-referential
culture, these forgotten landscapes show the oft
ignored, rough underside of the world. We delight
in their realness and imperfection, rather than the
many manufactured experiences of ‘authenticity’
that surround us in todays world.
There is a change happening; from the endless
search for a perfect ‘lost paradise’, to finding
beauty in ‘paradise lost’.
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Socialanalytics Wordfromtheweb by Giulia Bazoli and Lee Fordham, Flamingo Digital
21 min.
4.2 sec.
54 sec.
11 min.
3 min.
RUINPORN
WILDERNESS
UNKNOWN
FIELDS
SERENDIPITY
WABISABI
tonydetroit
bipolaire61
newsjean
wabi sabi
“Uploads snapshots from aban-
doned parts of his city.”
“Wide, open, expan-
sive snapshots from
life in the arctic.”
“AP’s Korea Bureau chief up-
loading snapshot of everyday
life in North Korea “
“Images that
reflect the natural
cycle of growth,
decay and death.”
PHOTOGRAPHS CAPTURING
CONTEMPORARY RUINS
CELEBRATING THE
REMOTE AND ADVENTURE
OF THE WILD
INVESTIGATING
FORGOTTEN AND
OBSOLETE LANDSCAPES
UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES; CHANCE
ENCOUNTERS; RANDOM HAPPENINGS
JAPANESE
MOVEMENT ON THE
ACCEPTANCE OF
TRANSIENCE AND
THE IMPERFECTION
OF THINGSAbigailTee
@saysthequeen-24/09
Re-watching my fa-
vorite video; Be a Moses,
go into the wilderness,
get epiphanies and rev-
elations.
AthulMR
@athulexe-7/09
The continued existence
of wildlife and wilder-
ness is important to the
quality of life for hu-
mans
Maureenberglind
@yelowsubmaureen-24/09
Half of me wants to get
straight As and a sweet
job but half of me wants
to drop out and move
into the wilderness
AndrewZimmern
@andrewzimmern-23/09
3 days in Vancouver
and I can’t find a single
thing wrong with this
town. Urban perfection
on the edge of idyllic
wilderness & vast seas
KatHahn
@daddycaniburnit-17/09
Wabi-Sabi. In a nutshell
it acknowledges 3 reali-
ties: nothing lasts, noth-
ing is finished & nothing
is perfect.
Huckberry
@huckberry-13/09
Exploring the Japanese
aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi,
and how we need it now
more than ever
http://bit.ly/18ZyeoP
RomanticDominant
@romdominant-25/09
A conversation, a
mouse click, a stroke
of serendipity, a false
note, a disappointment
Butterfly effect Every-
thing can change In an
instant.
IdeasLab
@ideaslaboratory-24/09
Serendipity can be
a source of #innova-
tion, but not in a world
where we all consume
the same information”
http://ow.ly/paiGT
RegineDebatty
@wmmna-29/05
Unknown Fields Mada-
gascar Expedition Sign
Up @unknownfields
JoshuaCaterino
@JoshuaCaterino - 10/10
#Design Inspiration:
Unknown Fields Divi-
sion from Roswell to
Burning Man
http://ow.ly/2sBRAk
Otisredn
@otisredn-18/09
So give Detroit a break
and educate yourself be-
fore you participate in
ruin porn, you’re miss-
ing out on the magi...
ErinSpens
@erinspens-25/09
I’m talking porn (ruin
porn) this Fri 27th at
@V_and_A Museum!
http://bit.ly/UnLHFg
Defending Detroit,
Athens, and probably
blushing a lot
354,057
29,378
42,794
13,99413,994
245
158
75
From the villages of palaces left behind, to the global
exploits of urban explorers, from the popularity of
the ‘wabi sabi’ aesthetic, to the rise of the ‘ruin porn’
genre of photography, we have fallen in love with the
poignancy of the left behind. The eerie silence, de-
serted buildings and a sense of a human story cap-
tured like a fly in amber, written into landscape.
Search term
Mentioned
every...
(Jan. 2012)
Instagram
profile
Pinterest
profile
Followers Following
StaceyHash
@staceyhashh-23/09
Serendipity - finding
something good with-
out looking for it.
TessyBritton
@tessybritton-24/09
[Clever cities] might
even put at risk the ser-
endipity that makes cit-
ies such creative places”
says @richardsennett
Domus
@DomusWeb 03/08
@unknownfields Divi-
sion, Part I: Cherno-
byl. An excursion to
the zones where myths
of the near future are
manufactured:
http://bit.ly/qVM3If
PeteCollard
@petecollard-25/07
Struggling to get back
into London work mode
without epic landscapes
rolling past the window
#unknownfields
EmCarter
@avengedseinfeld-19/09
This is the first time I’ve
heard ruin porn in an
academic context.
Vahnee
@vahnee-29/11
I love the dramatized
and undramatized
tragedy of ruin porn.
http://bit.ly/YbsTv9
AbbyWynne
@abbynrghealing-8/09
The Japanese culture
of Wabi Sabi - when we
are broken we heal and
are forever changed,
and all the more…
Arielleford
@arielleford-14/10
http://WabiSabiLove.com
Being a Wabi Sabi cou-
ple means to give and
receive, not just dump
and vent.

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Naoto
Matsumura
Our Sole Survivor
by Sinikka Heden
Tomioka in Fukushima’s nuclear exclusion zone
has become a place lost in time, destined for his-
tory but “saved” by one man. Whilst our world de-
fined by speed moves on, Matsumara a 50-year-
old farmer and resident of Tomioka remains;
choosing to jeopardize his own health to care for
all the pets that were left behind. “I refuse to leave
and let go.” He told the Tokyo press back in 2011.
And in doing so, he has become something of a
quiet hero for Japan. With a website, facebook
page and palpable global following.
Isittheattractionofhimbeingthesolesurvivorinan
apocalypse-like situation that draws us to his story
so? From a safe distance we can explore how that
might feel. Or perhaps we are moved by this man
who has chosen to stay behind and remember whilst
the rest of his country moves on to forget. Either
way we can’t help but worry about how it will end
andwonderifhisfollowerswillstillbewithhimthen?
In focus Forgotten landscapes across the world by Sinikka Heden, Miriam Rayman and Amy Rait
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Queen Elizabeth
Olympic Park
A celebration of nature’s life cycle
by Amy Rait
Within two-weeks of the end of the 2012 Olympics
the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park was back in pub-
lic use thanks to erect architecture, the architecture
agency who won the competition to develop the
site. We love what they are doing to the park be-
cause of its focus on the theme of life cycles which
is something that resonates with our interest in
forgotten landscapes. The design of the park, café,
water play space and landscaped areas not only ac-
counts for the life cycle of nature, but delights in it,
using new and old together to create one harmo-
nious and intriguing whole. “At the highest point,
a giant tree – blasted as if by lightning – allows a
clambering route up within the thickness of the
trunk to the loftiest perch,” says erect architecture,
co-founder, Barbara Kaucky.
erect architecture are also known for their tempo-
rary structures as part of the Studio in the Woods
initiative. Be it a badger or skywatching platform
these are structures designed to sag and even
improve over time. And whilst this is becoming a
common trend within architecture it still feels new
within branded products. Only now are we begin-
ning to see clever brands considering the lifecycle
of their products and incorporating this into the
design and experience.
Shahira
Hammad
Could business harness
spontaneous order too?
by Amy Rait
This incredible scene looks like a dark vision of the
future, it’s actually, Egyptian architect Shahira Ham-
mad’slatestproposalfortheredevelopmentofWest-
bahnhof Train Station in Austria. It’s a picturesque
study of decay, celebrating the imperfect, the or-
ganicandnature’ssheermessiness.Whichwhenyou
think of architecture’s obsession with the neat and
rigidisquiteadramaticbreakaway.NowonderHam-
mad’s designs have drawn a lot of attention -- not
leastfromtheHiveMind.Aswetalkmoreaboutsus-
tainable cities and the need to be more in harmony
withnature,couldthisbewhattheystarttolooklike?
“I’m trying to bring the complexities of nature into
theurbanfabric,”HammadtoldHiveMind,“Iexplore
growthanddecayandcelebratethespontaneousor-
der that all of nature is designed around.”
Hammad may be spearheading this as an architec-
tural aesthetic but it has relevance for broader cul-
tural shifts too. It reflects this newfound hunger to
move away from the safe, normal, rational and con-
trolled. Might we start to see more brands embrace
the excess and chaos of living in a natural world
where decay is part of the story? It may feel at odds
with today’s productivity focused business environ-
ment, but we shouldn’t be afraid to let something
grow and see where it goes instead of trying to con-
trol everything.
In focus

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thehivemindISSUE01
16 We first came across Liam Young and his journey to
forgottenlandscapesafewyearsago.Thenitseemed
like an eccentric pursuit. We saw Young and his part-
ner Kate Davies as modern day explorers, bringing
back curiosities (film and photography) as souvenirs
from these obsolete places. But the Unknown Fields
Expeditions don’t feel eccentric anymore. They feel
relevant,timelyandessentialtohowwechoosetolive
now and in the future.
“We started with an aim to go off in search of wild,
emptylandscapesbutwehaven’tfoundthemyet,”ex-
plainsYoungoftheUnknownFieldsExpeditionswhich
have so far taken a mix of keen tourists and research-
ers to New Mexico’s Area 51; the Chenobyl Exclusion
Zone and the Madagascan Rainforest, amongst other
intrepid locations. “Part of the greatest discoveries of
our trips is that these spaces are only forgotten for us.
Infact,we’vealwaysfoundpeoplelivingaprettybanal
existence in the places we visit.”
What Young, Davies and the Unknown Fields team
found is that what we imagine to be forgotten land-
scapes are part of a very designed process of forget-
ting.Itsuitsourmodernwayoflivingtoactivelyforget
these places. They are reminders to a time we’d rather
not be faced with; or they put a downer on our con-
sumer culture, giving evidence of its negative effects
on the world’s natural environment and resources.
AndthishasbecomeacoremissiondrivingYoungand
Davies’s explorations forward. “A lot of the issues we
confront on the trips are really challenging,” he says,
“It becomes a life changing experience for the people
whocomealong.”Youngdescribesthebloodlikepud-
dles they witnessed creeping across the Madagascan
rainforest this year, fallout from the local cobalt and
nickel mines excavated to keep our laptops and smart
phones whizzing along.
The truth hurts it seems and we’d rather not be faced
withit.ButaccordingtoYoung,thisreckoningisanec-
essary process that modern society must go through
to get to a new way of living. If not on the expeditions
then hopefully through the range of outputs that the
fieldtrips generate.
“It’s palpable in the air that there’s an urgent need to
be talking about these issues,” says Young. Which is
why a crucial part of the Unknown Fields expeditions
is the counter-narratives, fictions and role-play sce-
narios that the researchers generate. So far they’ve
published a graphic novel ‘Alien Encounters’; a book
on Chernobyl entitled “Guilty Landscapes”; and as-
sembled The Space Orchestra from Nasa scientists
who performed Ground Control: An Opera in Space
directed by artist, Nelly Ben Hayoun.
Their next expedition, due to take place August 2014,
has just been announced and is now open for appli-
cants. We’d love Hive Magazine readers to join the ex-
plorers but be warned this is a trip that we will most
probably change your life. You may encounter land-
scapes you will find hard to forget. Your conscious
may undergo a moral shift and you may experience
temporary feelings of unease.
Unknown
Fields
Division
An unforgettable interview with
co-founder Liam Young
by Miriam Rayman
“Westartedwithanaimtogooffinsearchofwild,emptylandscapesbutwehaven’tfoundthemyet.”
Liam Young, architect and futurist, founder of the Unknown Fields Division
In focus

10. thehivemindISSUE01
18
the
Chettinad
mansions
Ghostvillagesarebeing
broughtbacktolife
by Miriam Rayman
Society’s growing fascination with forgotten plac-
es isn’t just a western obsession. Here we travel to
the Chettinad region in India’s Tamil Nadu to find
out why these deserted mansions are reported by
one Indian paper to be one of the fastest growing
holiday destinations in the country. Once home to
the lavish palaces of the Chettiars, a tightly knit
group of travelling merchants, whose commercial
empire stretched all the way to Burma, Malaysia,
Singapore and Vietnam. Today, all that is left of
the Chettiar’s banking prowess, that experienced
steep decline during the depression of the 1930s,
are the region’s ghost villages and the decaying
remains of these once lavish mansions.
Except for those which are being snapped up,
renovated and turned into boutique hotels such
as Saratha Villas in the small village of Kotha-
mangalam, which French couple Bernard Dragon
and Michel Adment fell in love with and 18 months
later have brought back to life. “People love the
eerie feeling of going back in time when they come
here,’ Dragon told Hive Mind, ‘The architecture
lends itself to deep introspection which makes it
a favourite for yoga and meditation retreats.” No
wonder the couple are now campaigning to make
the region a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Detroit
A post-industrial future
by Amy Rait
These forgotten landscapes are not about retreat-
ing into the past, or looking at a world left behind,
these places make us think about our lives today,
and lead us to wonder what we will build in the
future. How will people live and use the environ-
ment that surrounds them? The most infamous
‘ruined’ landscape of our time is clearly Detroit.
Although for some it is about the shock and awe
of a city in decay, they are drawn to it as ruin porn.
For others this is a glimpse into our future. As film
maker Julien Temple, who directed BBC’s Requi-
em For Detroit documentary says, “it is possible
to feel you’ve travelled 1000 years into the future,
and that among the ruins of Detroit, lies a first
pioneers map to the post industrial future which
awaits us all.”
So it is also by looking to the future that we see
the reality of Detroit, not a fossil captured at its
death, but as a city with inhabitants who are striv-
ing to create a new life of entrepreneurial spirit.
In focus
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Hashima island
Digital reminders
by Amy Rait
Early this year when Google decided to release
street view shots from the uninhabited island of
Hashima in Nagasaki, the world got a look back
at this forgotten landscape. Until 1974 this was a
thriving Mitsubushi mining community. Today it is
alifelessghosttown,andonewhichdesignerBryan
James has declared his fascination with. So much
in fact, that he decided to develop a website that
offersthevieweraninteractivejourneyaroundthis
landscape using Google Chrome: http://hashima-
island.co.uk. “The island was emptied so quickly
that many items and possessions still remain for
you to find as you explore the landscape and inte-
riors.” He says, “What remains is lost history, just
waiting to be lived all over again.”
And today that doesn’t have to be from visiting the
location. What James has shown us is that through
the digital realm we can have access to these ob-
scure places too. Could consumers be taken on a
tour through past brand landscapes in this way?
Could they get a little look into original ad cam-
paigns, or have a poke around old factory space, or
original factory towns like Bournville even? Brands
are fertile ground for picking through the archives.
And just as society is looking back to ground itself,
brands might like to try that too.
In focus
“Itispossibletofeel
you’vetravelled
1000yearsintothe
future,andthat
amongtheruins…
liesafirstpioneers
maptothepost
industrialfuture
whichawaitsusall”Julien Temple, director, Requiem For Detroit, BBC documentary
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Forgotten Perspectives
We live in a world where we seem obsessed with the immediate, with
getting things done; with action, focus, logic and rationality. In our
striving for ever increasing efficiency, we are more likely to be limiting
our effectiveness.
Not only is our attention and mental energy more limited than we
think, we also know from experience that to gain an understanding
of context, we must sometimes take a step back. Being too focused
on the now - on action, strategy and deadlines, we risk missing the
bigger picture all together. These forgotten landscapes can play a
crucial role in providing this well needed counter-balance.
Insight Seeing
It’s no coincidence that insights come at certain times. They come
when we stop thinking (in the shower), or when we are tired of think-
ing (those insights that come just before bed), or when we distract
ourselves by thinking about something else (Einstein used to play the
violin). So here we suggest you close your laptop and go in search of
a forgotten landscape instead, because this might put your brain in a
more creative state.
During exercise, Beta brain waves (associated with active cognition)
slow down, to become Alpha waves (associated with a calmer mind).
And research suggests that’s when we tend to experience ‘Eureka
moments’ (a burst of high frequency Gamma waves).
Embrace the Unfamiliar
Our brains respond positively to exploration. For example, research
has shown that when compared to London bus drivers, London taxi
drivers have enlarged hippocampi – a region of the brain associated
with spatial memory which is a testament to the merits of exploration
and novelty on the function of the brain.
We all benefit from neuroplasticity - our brain’s ability to learn and
adapt. But if we don’t continue to expose ourselves to the unfamiliar
we’ll lose that skill. Our brains are like muscles, and by exploring alien
landscapes we help to keep them agile.
Why we need it The Psychology of Forgotten Landscapes by Phil Dobson, psychologist and founder of Brain Workshops

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We delight in the perspec-
tive jolt of being somewhere
truly different, a different re-
ality and on a different time-
line how could a brand recre-
ate those conditions pulling
us out of the everyday and
offering another way to gain
perspective. For example Axe’s
playful campaigns which twist
narratives around the protago-
nist, or the entrancing Smirnoff
Apple Bite signature serve TVC
(By Mother), with its time lapse
movements, and a hypnotic re-
ality interspersed with chaotic
music and dance.
We have seen that brands can
think about nature in differ-
ent ways. Embracing the entire
lifecycle is a good place to start.
Why not glory in decay and re-
sist the over riding urge to make
things ever more perfect. The
luxury industry for one is em-
bracing this, upholding a beauty
in the time ravaged such as with
the Rough Luxe hotel. Could
your industry follow their lead
too?
Ratherthanlookingatnatureas
thesustainabilityboxyouhave
to tick, think about using na-
tureandtechnologyinharmony
togetherinsteadofasapposing
forces.The mass commercializa-
tionofnaturalhairoilsinparticular
Arganoilisagoodexampleofhow
this can be done successfully. Not
to mention the innovative Beco
line of baby and pet accessories,
such as the baby step and potty
that that can be buried after end
use to add nutrients to the garden
as they decompose.
People are starting to real-
ize that letting technologi-
cal capability set the agenda
will create a dysfunctional
and unhappy world. And they
are beginning to explore what
our needs and boundaries are
and developing new behav-
iours such as observing a Digi-
tal Sabbath, luxury digital detox
hotel, or merely remembering
to switch over to the ‘Do not
Disturb’ mode on the iPhone.
It’s also relevant for a non-tech
brand to think in this way. How
to help consumers create the
space and boundaries they
need to pull away from the of-
ten overwhelming nature of
technology?
We see serendipity not only
becoming rarer, but also be-
coming more revered. We are
moving in more streamlined and
similar circles, giving us more of
the same. We think we are ex-
ploring the whole wide world, yet
because of these personalized
results, people get a smaller and
smaller range of content each
time. What people actually want
is something from beyond their
remit. Can brands be coura-
geous enough to exist in the un-
expected instead of just serving
up ‘more of the same newness’?
The realness of forgotten
places and the fascination it
holds for people relates back
to our search for authenticity.
Can your brand integrate the
particular kind of authenticity
that comes with that which has
been humbled by time. It’s not
only heritage brands such as
Hovis, Hellman’s or the various
whisky brands which can do this.
Brand take-outs What Forgotten Landscapes signal for brand relationships by Miriam Rayman and Amy Rait
1.HamiltonPool by Dan Machold, a
state of manmade pools to come?
2.Stain, teacups designed to
improve through use, by Bethan
Laura Wood.
3.Livingwallby orange brompton
4.TreeHotel, Harads, Norrbotten
County, Swede by Niklas Jumlin
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2
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the mindEditors
Amy Rait, Miriam Rayman
Contributors
Giulia Bazoli, Lee Fordham, Dee de Lara, Sinikka Heden; Liam Young, Phil Dobson,
Bryan James, Bernard Dragon and Michel Adment, Barbara Kaucky, Shahira Hammad
Art direction / Graphic design
Arno Devo
Thanks
Annie Auerbach, Adam Chmielowski, Ioana Bejenaru,
Lee Fordham, Sandra Mardin and Tom Jackson
This is a Flamingo owned product generated for its own insight and for that of its
clients. No part of this document should be reproduced for public or private use unless
alongside mention of Flamingo, Cultural Intelligence, including a link back to the Hive
Mind Magazine site.
ISSUE01 forgottenlandscapes