Blue Sounds, Black SmellsUpali Nanda, PhD, Assoc. AIA, EDAC

Ana Pinto-Alexander, RID, IIDA, EDAC

Carina Clark, EDAC, LEED AP BD+C

What we look at in Design . . .

. . . What we forget

Societies growth to visual

Senses in 360°

VISION 1 Direction Far distance

TOUCH 360° Small distance

SMELL 360° Mid-long

distance

TASTE On contact Small distance

SOUND 360° Far distance

The Sensory order in Culture, Philosophy & Economics

Aristotle’s hierarchy based on clarity, purity, development, honor, enlightenment and “animality”:

• The Human Senses• Sight• Hearing• Smell

• The Animal Senses• Taste• Touch

(Synott, 1991 cited in Nanda, 2008)

Knowledge does not begin with the sensory event at hand….[it] is forged by the connection, or “linkage” of new sensory information to previous sensory experiences… the mind is a weave of old and new sensory data in a network of connections or “links” called the sensory order

(Hayek, 1996 in Nanda, 2008)

Frederick Hayek Connects Sensory Orders to Market Economy

Sensory ordersSurvey with 17 first year design students

Nanda 2008

Sensory ordersSurvey with 17 first year design students

Nanda 2008

Smell 101

10,000 smells can be differentiated

The thought of smell is as powerful as smelling it

Ability to involuntary recognize smells :

richer / deeper emotions

Inability to recognize smells: lack of

emotion

Clark, C. (2013)

SOUND

SMELL TOUCH

TASTE

Healthcare: Senses Overlooked

Smells of an ED

http://csclv.nevada.edu/csclv/index.cfm/facilities/simulation-program-labs/

http://haicontroversies.blogspot.com/2011/10/hand-hygiene-in-emergency-department.html

http://courtneyslaton.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/go-away-this-is-my-church-2/

Solving for Smell

ProblemSolution Investigation

Clark, C. (2013)

Smell Study Conclusion

Smell:: Emotion:: Memory“Associations” | “Expectancy”

Odor perceptionthrough expectation

Sensory ConnectionsPeople process odors differently depending on the other sensory inputs they receive. When a person looks at a photograph of a rose while smelling rose oil, for example, she rates the aroma as both more intense and more pleasant than she does if she smells rose oil while looking at a picture of a peanut.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/02/scents.aspx

Sensory Cross Connections

http://www.visualinformation.info/understanding-the-phenomenon-of-synesthesia-infographic/

Crossmodal Research

Crossmodal Priming. Spatial Expectancy: Across Modalities. Fused Perceptions.

COLOR SOUND SMELL TEXTURES/TEMPERATURE

EMOTIONS

REDConsistently High Response

BLUE

GREEN

YELLOW

VIOLET Consistently Low and Varied

BLACK Extremely High/ Extremely Low; Consistent

ORANGE

WHITE

9 Beginning Design Students10 Graduate Students

Crossmodal “Conception”

The World of DesignLoud Spaces; Cool/Warm Colors; Visual Noise

• Concurrence:• Lighting, acoustics, sounds,

textures, smells

• Correspondence: • Co-relation between the

sensory design elements. Crossmodal priming.

• Coherence: • Development of a

meaningful “experience”