The authors of the study concluded that people bothered by background noise are better able to focus on multiple stimuli at once, which translates into more creative thinking. (businessinsider.com)
Titled Adaption: Test Room Containing Multiple Stimuli Known to Elicit Curiosity and Manipulatory Responses (2010), artist Mike Kelley modeled the set after Harry Harlow's primate laboratory, a psychologist who investigated the impact of bodily contact and isolation on aggression and affection in monkeys in the 1950s and 60s. (dailyserving.com)
Mike Kelley's «Adaption: Test Room Containing Multiple Stimuli Known to Elicit Curiosity and Manipulatory Responses» (1999/2010), photo by Alastair Muir, courtesy of Hayward Gallery (dailyserving.com)