Ambient noise and creativity – does journal article explain why the Creative Café works?

Five experiments conducted by Ravi Mehta, Rui (Juliet) Zhu and Amar Cheema and described in the Journal of Consumer Research show that a moderate level of noise “is likely to induce processing disfluency or processing difficulty, which activates abstract cognition and consequently enhances creative performance.”  Put simpler and in our context : as we are distracted from completely logical thought because of the noise we experience in a café, we make way for something else to happen. That something else is more creative.  

The article also tells us that all sorts of noise are actually disruptive to logical thought  – for example white noise (artificially created and containing all the range of sounds that the human hearing system can process) and pink noise that sounds like the general hiss of an untuned television. High levels of noise also disrupt. The latter is not to be confused with loud noise; loudness is a subjective perception. However, as the café user / creative practitioner is distracted by a moderate level of noise, including some white noise, room for abstract thought is created.   

The participants’ creativity was measured by how many unique ideas they generated (experiments 1, 2 and 3) when exposed to moderate levels of noise. In experiment 4 they were asked to come up with as many solutions as they could to a particular problem. In the final experiment, participants’ responses were monitored as they sat in a common room at various times of the day.

The study shows that a moderate level of background noise enhances creativity and a high level disrupts it. Possibly, lower noise level allows more logical thinking to carry on so does not allow for the more creative, more abstract thought. The article also mentions a café as being a natural place for this moderate level of noise.

Tis article offers us some explanation as to why a café is a suitable place for a creative practitioner to work and gives us permission to indulge. I certainly know many writers who like to sit in a café – they claim it makes them feel less lonely than working in isolation at home.  The article, however, seems to point to an additional reason, one of which the practitioners are not aware: that they actually think more creatively there. I often plan in a café and I’m often overtaken by those eureka-inducing ideas that seem to come from nowhere as I sip my cappuccino and tuck into my passion cake. Is the cake and caffeine also important? Many of my writer friends think so. Is that a whole other piece of research?   

One thing is certain: café noise does not disrupt the creative train of thought.  A whispered conversation in a library or an open-plan office can as you can understand the words and you can’t help but listen in. The pneumatic drill outside or the clatter of plates falling and breaking is just uncomfortable. All of this is a matter of common sense. It is the change of the way of thinking in the moderate noise zone that intrigues in this article – and this may just explain why creative practitioners like cafes so much.            

The Ginger Pig, Hoxton

Hoxton, anyway, is a delight. Bohemian, multicultural and good old London town all at once. Not to forget that is also the home of the Ministry of Stories and therefore the place where I tend to take lunch on a day when I’ve volunteered as a mentor.

It looks like a greasy spoon. And indeed, they do serve excellent breakfasts, though as they are so gourmet and they serve them all day they call them brunch. Even the sausages and slices of bacon are not at all greasy. There is a supplementary lunch time menu.

The people who run The Pig would probably be surprised to learn that the café should belong to the Creative Café Project.  In some ways it is the Creative Café at its best.  It is totally unselfconscious.  The free Wi-Fi helps. Creative practitioners, including me, sit and work there as they wait for food to arrive. I’ve observed artists meeting to discuss projects. I overheard an author talking to his agent one day. There is a rack of newspapers. Some sit there reading their Kindles.

You have to pay cash at The Ginger Pig. There is nothing fancy here. But it excels in other ways. The service is quick. The food is excellent. The whole establishment, including the toilets, is so clean it squeaks.    

Read another review here. Better still, make a visit. You could even also volunteer for the Ministry of Stories whilst you’re in Hoxton.              

Nerja –One Big Creative Café?

We’ve been coming to Nerja now for 24 years. When we called at the bar just now to use the Wi Fi we met someone who started coming here 25 years ago and now lives here.  He’s never met anyone who doesn’t like the place. I’ve met just one such person. We know lots of other people who keep on coming back.

But in all the years I’ve been here I haven’t really found what I would call a Creative Café? Is it that it’s too hot to look? There is one bar near the Burriana Beach that encourages book crossing and one or two bars display local art for sale. That’s about it.

Except, maybe not quite. There are those old men who used to sit in the shade of the lemon trees outside the market place, when it was a market place. They now put the world to rights a little further down the road outside a small local café, purchasing an occasional coffee.

You can actually count all of the sunbed areas on the beach as cafés. The managers act also as waiters and fetch drinks and snacks from the merenderos behind. The sunbeds’ occupants read a variety of literature some far more literary and intellectual than one would imagine.  Not to mention the conversations that go on amongst friends and between strangers. And there’s the odd strolling busker that these days are much better than they used to be 20 years ago.  Yes, it’s all about sand, sea and sun. Yet it’s actually about more than just sun-bathing. 

There’s culture aplenty, anyway. Concerts in the caves. Exhibitions. Stage plays. Decent cinema. Much history. But not necessarily inside a café.

I wouldn’t be a writer if I hadn’t come to Nerja 24 years ago. I’ve published a short story set here, written by someone else. I know of another children’s writer who spends each winter here. And yet another enthuses about it too. So, the creative practitioners abound. Maybe because of the microclimate here – cooler in summer and warmer in winter - they don’t need to hide within a café to connect with others in the way that the Creative Café permits. Or could it just be that Nerja is one big Creative Café?   

The Creative Café Project New Web Site

I’ve now migrated the Creative Café Project web site and am starting to build it up again. This was harder than it should have been, considering I’m going from Microsoft to Microsoft, and frankly, I’m not all that happy with the new platform, so once the trial period is over, I may well move again. A couple of my other sites I have with a different provider and I like that better – at the moment. Who knows, though? Things may change. I’ll most likely get used to it.

So, there’s only a skeleton as yet, but I’m gradually putting back the content that was there before and adding new pages. I actually find this quite creative. It’s forcing me to review the site thoroughly.

One of the biggest differences is that CaféLit now has its own dedicated site.           

As always, I’m on the lookout for new cafes and new ideas all the time. So, if you have any suggestions, do contact me via the contact form on the site.   

Literary Salon at Time for Tea, Prestwich

This was hugely successful and I’m going to do it again in the autumn. Time for Tea did us proud – the £7.00 a head is really good value. Endless cups of tea / coffee. A choice of quiches, sandwiches and open rolls, scones with butter and jam and really scrumptious  cakes. And all out of and off proper china.

The tables were set out in such a way that we could all see each other and this aided the general conversation, the book swap, the readings and the Q & A sessions.

We had two readings: one from Jo Langton, one of my MA students who also did her BA at Salford University. She read from her recently published chap book fill the silence, published by Erbacce Press. Jo has done well to be published whilst still at university. She talked to us about her work. She also brought along one of her MA projects – a set of beautifully crafted “tea-bags” that contained words so that readers can create their own texts. Most appropriate in a tea-shop!

We also had readings by members of the Phoenix Writers Group who meet in Horwich. They read extracts from their recently published book, Fleeting Moments.

Both reading were delightful and led to some lively discussions.

The book exchange was exciting too. People had the chance to say why they liked the book they were offering and it was good to receive books from the readers.

Naturally, as there were two of my students present, the conversation turned from time to time to Salford University and the whole idea of studying creative writing at university. Another participant, who has an MA in Creative Writing but from another university, astounded us all by reporting that in his day – some time ago now – there was a cap of seven on the MA course! Useful information indeed.        

One disappointment was that four people who said they would come did not show up. Naturally we had to pay for their food anyway. We couldn’t expect the café to cover those sorts of costs.  But if they had come, I’m not sure we would have got through everything. And would the informality be the same?

So, there are lessons to be learnt.

I’m intending to make the next event free as well, but I will make clear to people that we have to pay even if they don’t turn up.  I will, however, ask for donations towards the Creative Café Project at the end of the evening.   

Having two sets of readings is about right. It would however take quite a lot of time for readers all to talk about the books they have brought along. We need to limit this to a couple of sentences each.

The informal discussion is great and we really want to keep that.