Spatial Affects

I found the topic of spatial arrangement and its affect on our lives and the communication process interesting. I can hardly recall a time in my life when I was not acutely aware of furniture placement, seating arrangements, and overall room aesthetics in every facet of my life.  Without knowing the do’s and don’ts of why I would sit in a certain place, or prefer furniture arranged a certain way specific to the people and context of the gathering, ex: business, family, etc. or whether I felt a need to disarm someone’s defensiveness who was sitting at the table with me, or feel I was more in a power position, after reading this portion of our text, I now realize I was inherently tuned into the affect of spatial arrangement beyond wanting to sit next to someone I was interested to talk to. There have been occasions where I’ve been aware of sitting at the head of the table in business when I am leading something, and other times when I have been mindful to sit in the middle seat around a table when I wanted a more collaborative communication process, but I am inspired to know there is an actual term and concept surrounding what I did naturally to facilitate communication as I deemed appropriate.  It is very interesting how spatial and visual surroundings have such an impact on our lives.