Why is aesthetic diversity important?

Does it matter if all of your artwork is pretty much the same in regards to style, imagery, color palettes, and size? Does it matter if the same kind of substrate (e.g. canvas or acrylic) is used throughout an entire installation?

It seems like it shouldn't, doesn't it? 'Art is art', and taking a cookie-cutter approach would certainly make the design work easier and faster. But! As it turns out, aesthetic diversity DOES matter and significantly so.

Why? Because of how our minds work. We are constantly scanning our environments and spaces for stimuli. Our brains are constantly looking for 'new' and 'different' (like a stalking tiger that might have just shifted its position). In order to maintain our awareness and sensitivity to new elements in our environments (like a tiger), our brains have evolved to tune out repetitions and patterns, dulling our perception and awareness of them.

A classic example of this in action is traveling to an unfamiliar place vs. traveling to a familiar place. Traveling to an unfamiliar place seems to take longer, because your brain is ingesting and processing all the 'new', and you find yourself picking out landmarks and other more subtle features in order to orient yourself. But travel those same pathways enough times, and you start letting your surroundings fade into the background to the point that now your trip seems much shorter, and you barely remember any of it.

This holds true for interior spaces as well, and things within those spaces. Like art and design! If everything is 'pretty much the same', our brain starts subconsciously tuning it all out - which is exactly the opposite effect that one wants after investing time, money, and effort into the implementation of an art program!

But designing with a diversity of art as a goal, ensures that the environments and interior spaces remain engaging and able to capture the attention of the people using and moving through them.