Animator's Paradox: Working Environment

This page is part of the BA Thesis "The Animator's Paradox" by Lukas Wind (2022)

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Working environment – The basics

Too much of the healthiest food will eventually lead to other shortcomings. The same goes for our posture. We should be very skeptical about comfortable furniture that seduces us to spend long time on it. Nükhet Wieben supports the idea of protection being a misconception. What feels good in the short term could lead to more compromises and poor posture in the long term, she says.¹ However, this should not be seen as a reason to abandon ergonomic furniture or devices. When using a keyboard really is the only option it better be an ergonomic one to reduce strain. And when there are other options, we change between them.

In the above linked video an expert explains how to set up the default desk. This is the bare minimum which is rarely met in most working environments. Referring back to our food analogy, let’s consider this ergonomic desk setup like eating blueberries: Yes, it’s certainly a healthier alternative and it has to be included but that alone doesn’t make it a healthy diet. We already investigated on the importance of change and movement which made us conclude, our posture diet should embrace variety. Therefore, I propose we judge in the following way: Does this object encourage movement or prevent us from movement?

But first, we visit two heavily overlooked components of the working environment: Light and room climate.

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Sources

¹ Wieben, N. (2019). Schmerzfrei sitzen: Einfache Übungen für eine gesunde Haltung. Kösel-Verlag.