The taste of water

In an interview about his approaches to art, the twentieth-century American artist and composer John Cage commented that we must keep trying to live in ways that encourage us, every day, to continue to change ourselves. It is - he said wryly - why we brush our teeth.

From a literati perspective, the design of daily life can be undertaken to enhance and sustain moods that correspond to the times of day. In this way, the structure of the day is echoed by objects and environments we encounter.

Waking, one seeks a clear, calmed consciousness, a fresh start. Light and colour define this moment - soft and enwrapping, yet defining the contours of objects. In older buildings, this is an effect created by the transparent luminosity of paper and the shadows of lattices. Occasionally, in the last two hundred years, stained glass also was used; sunlight pierced it creating pools of coloured light.