Sense-Ability – Multisensory Accessory Design

Project Leads:
Wan-Ting Tseng (IDE VL)
Jack O’Leary McNeice (IDE alumnus)
Anna Nolda Nagele  (CSM graduate, future storyteller)

Number of participants: 25

Duration: 5 days

Project Outline:

Inspired by Jinsop Lee’s design for all 5 senses, we believe that in the future, people will be eager to experience more than we do now. While augmented and virtual reality are beginning to offer new, immersive sensory experiences, they are largely limited to sight and hearing, and are applicable in a relatively small range of scenarios. What if, instead, we could develop products, interactions and objects for daily use, that immerse us in and expand the potential for experiences in other senses?

In this 5 day workshop, participants will create a narrative and physical intervention (e.g. jewellery, clothing, performative object, device) offering different responses to the senses of “Touch” and “Smell” within different speculative or future scenarios – a toolkit will be provided, but participants are also encouraged to experiment with their own materials and mediums.

Touch
“Some of the most memorable moments in our lives are composed of tactile and olfactory experiences. These memories are unaffected by time and stay in our minds forever.”

Smell
“The nose is one of the most sensitive organs, and smell is among the senses most intensely connected with memory. The area of a human brain that reacts to smell is also the part that deals with human emotions and memories.” 

Can we instrumentalise this effect to create richer and more meaningful experiences? Through different arrangements of spices and scents, participants will aim to evoke scenes from memory. Wearables will be designed to give the experience of living in the memory of a scene.

Timetable:

Day 1
AM:
Team and Student Introductions
Project Briefing
Group Forming + Idea Discussion

PM:
Expert Talk – Anna Nagele: Storytelling & Design
Toolkit Introduction
Discussion

Day 2
AM:
Sensory Exercises with Harry Sherwood “scent engineer”
Student Discussion and Ideation – Narrative

PM:
Expert Talk – Sarah McCartney: Perfumer
Narrative Discussion
Material Requests

Day 3
AM:
Prototyping + Building

PM:
Prototyping + Building
Checkpoint Discussion

Day 4
AM:
Prototyping + Building

PM:
Prototyping + Building
Checkpoint Discussion

Day 5

AM:
Move to Lower Gulbunkian for Photography + Exhibition
Final Prototyping and Making

PM:
Short Presentations/Performances of Projects
Project Photography by Professional Photographer
Mini Exhibition + Ending Party