Two Unstoppable Forces: Light and Emotion

One of the most exciting and prolific active architects in today's world is Renzo Piano. One would be hard-pressed to travel to any major American city - and many others throughout the world - and not find an example of his work. Very impressive indeed. In a recent interview, Piano described light as "the most untouchable, immaterial material of architecture." That got me to thinking: in the field of communication, emotion could be described in similar fashion. The existence of these two unstoppable forces is undeniable. In that sense, they are similar to gravity. For Piano, light is an invisible force that he strives to control or direct in the way he designs his buildings. In communication, emotion is another invisible, yet powerful and unstoppable force that communicators seek to shape, alter, and, ultimately, control.

Piano's efforts regarding light go beyond simply designing windows where one can pull up or down a curtain and keep out or let in its brightness. Rather, the shape of his buildings helps determine the angle of the light and its impact on a structure's exterior and interior. When it comes to emotions, communicators struggle each day to determine effective ways to manipulate the emotions of various publics in ways that motive certain actions and attitudes. Being successful at this is quite a challenge. No one is perfect at it because of the unpredictability of peoples' emotions. They are so vast and sometimes emerge from sources that even the people themselves do not fully understand or totally recognize.

Piano and other architects design a building and the work is met with praise or criticism. Communicators create a public relations or promotional campaign that generates positive visibility or negative responses. Dealing with such powerful forces requires overwhelming respect for their power and the great potential of their impact. As I am not an architect, I can not speak directly to this final point. But in the field of communication, my concern is that at times professional communicators are a bit too cavalier when it comes to attempting to manipulate emotions. In recent times, for instance, what I call "the fear button" has been pushed far too often. Sadly, so many of the results have not been good. Perhaps greater respect for people's emotions as well as their intellect is needed to combat this.