Curiosity is a potent source of motivation and inspiration. Encounters that evoke it add color to our lives. The multisensory devices introduced here result from experiments that sought to explore new ways to appeal to our senses.
MULTISENSORY DEVICES
Sparking curiosity through evocative encounters
INFO
2018
Year
Independent Work
Type
Research,
Prototyping
Roles
SUMMARY
What if technology could exist in symbiosis with the sensory nature of our everyday experiences? What if, instead of confronting us with abstractly modeled, complex knowledge, technology would immerse us in new, sensory experiences that appeal to our intrinsic sense of curiosity?
In preparation for my master’s thesis on Metaphoric Interfaces, I set out to explore these questions by experimenting with different ways to engage with technology using our senses.
SYMBIOTIC DIALOGUES
between technology and its users
OBJECTIVE
To investigate different modalities’ roles in our perception, I built a repertoire of tools that cater to our various sensory capabilities. This repertoire served as a basis for identifying cross-modal effects – circumstances under which different sensory modalities collaborate to create a more consistent understanding of a given bit of information.
METHOD
I explored various mechanical and physical principles throughout my iterative process, the most promising of which were the thermoelectric effect, particle jamming, and metamaterial structures.
These allowed me to create experiences based on
- Spatial and volumetric transformations
- Temperature distribution and dissipation
- Surface tension and stiffness
CONCLUSIONS
Immersive sensory experiences are very effective in eliciting strong emotional responses. Notably, combining several modalities and controlling the evolution of these properties over time provided particularly expressive and gratifying results.