SAVAGE CONCEPTS
Design Terrains - Expanded Project
Research
Previously when designing in regards to the senses, I focussed on the sense of touch and the manner in which you can leverage tacit knowledge (the knowledge gained through experience) to surprise people through the experience that follows.
My research for this project started with the other senses and how they are used within everyday life the full advantage. Of the 5 senses, sight and touch are the ones that designers most often take into consideration. Sound, smell and taste have often been left without consideration. I think that this is due to the added complexity needed to design for these things. This insight by Freud and the relation to the Proust effect I found to be interesting an led me to do further research into the proust effect: https://notanothertab.wordpress.com/2024/01/08/the-senses-book/(opens in a new tab)
I pulled the bottom quote as I found it interesting that as there is a loss of identity through Alzheimer's, the other sense start to shut down. The way that smell can be so powerful in triggering memories (and by passes other processing actions- see quote above) it is almost like there is a deeper link between the two actions.
The way that smell can be used to initiate emotions and memories is starting be harnessed by IKEA, where they are pumping smells into their departments to help entice customers to feel feelings of homeliness and comfort whilst browsing in the shops.
Abstract above is shown from the Masters thesis by Van Nek, M.C.A.
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8d9fa4c9-61a4-4490-ad18-944dfa9f95cc
Van Nek, M.C.A. (1970) Adding scent to the IKEA shopping experience, a multi-sensory approach, TU Delft Repositories. Available at: https://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/uuid:8d9fa4c9-61a4-4490-ad18-944dfa9f95cc?collection=education (Accessed: 08 January 2024).
Sensory design celebrates the qualities of place. Graphic designer Kate McLean created a sensory map of Singapore using experiential data generated by over two hundred residents who went with her on “smellwalks.” Suspended in the humid air of this island city are the smells of curry, jasmine, and Manila rope. Little India and Kampong Glam are districts especially dense with scent. McLean’s map locates distinctive smells and visualizes their trajectories. Smell cannot be abstracted from bodily experience: “Using humans as sensors is a method that aggregates personal insight…. It is about the acceptance of the subjective as worthy and useful data.”
Kate McLean, “Smellmap: Amsterdam — Olfactory Art and Smell Visualization,” Leonardo, 50, no. 1 (2017): 92–93, doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_01225
Lupton, E. and Lipps, A. (2018) ‘Why sensory design?’, in The Senses: Design beyond vision. Hudson, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 17.
At the point where the orange peel failed, I started to explore other options to use organic materials to develop a material that could use the sense of small to convey a message. Part of that exploration was using Jelly as a binder for items such as coffee grounds. I discontinued this route of exploration due to the belief that although the coffee grounds were able to keep their scent, the use of a food substance which could be eaten wasn’t the direction that I wanted this project to travel in.
