• 1st Concept Statement:
  • I am studying how synesthesia can affect human perception in culinary art.
  • I am making a ________ to let the user experience an extraordinary dining experience which reinterprets taste to other different senses.     
  • I aim to extend senses by synesthesia and technology.

9/12 presentation slides

Feedback:

  • The number of people who study synesthesia is much more than the people who have synesthesia.
  • Research on synesthesia background.
  • Is synesthesia a dysfunction or mutation?
  • Transhumanism
  • Hybrid-sensorial /  multi-sensorial
  • Think about what’s the impetus of studying synesthesia? –> explore human limitation?

 

Research

Synesthesia

https://68.media.tumblr.com/476879c2d56fcf118dd4779559a0ec77/tumblr_inline_nnu4bsXp1v1qlskdk_1280.jpg

  • The word synesthesia means “union of the senses,” and synesthetes — roughly 4 percent of the population — are adults whose senses mingle in a sort of cross-wiring of the brain.
  • Synesthesia had its share of skeptics. Synesthesia couldn’t be real, because it contradicted the dominant scientific paradigm that senses travel along five separate channels.
  •  A 2013paper in Cerebral Cortex also identified a neural link between feeling and hearing, showing that in rare instances, synesthesia can also be acquired after a stroke. Using MRI, neuroscientists found that, indeed, the body can “mix up” sound and touch even without brain damage.

(resource: http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/07/why-do-so-many-artists-have-synesthesia.html)

 

  • Cultural Synesthesia –> cultural associations

In “pure” synesthetes—those with the neurological condition—the sensory connections tend to be highly idiosyncratic, differing between individuals. Cultural associations, on the other hand, are shared by populations.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/new_scientist/2013/09/cultural_synesthesia_in_marketing_tiffany_cadbury_and_corona_use_multiple.html

 


 

Transhumanism

Transhumanism is a class of philosophies of life that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values. – Max More (1990)

Transhumanism / Biohack design precedents:

  •  American Cyborg (documentary)

https://www.theverge.com/2012/8/8/3177438/cyborg-america-biohackers-grinders-body-hackers

The story of biohackers who have the idea of human enhancement.

  • Skinterface

  • DuoSkin

http://duoskin.media.mit.edu/

  • Eyesect

http://theconstitute.org/eyesect/

 

  • IBM 5in5 project

http://www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles/ArticleID/5085/IBM-Plans-to-Extend-UI-to-All-5-Senses.aspx

 

  • Haptics and Emotion: How Touch Communicates Feelings

Haptics and Emotion: How Touch Communicates Feelings

  • The People Who Store Their Emotions in Their Fingertips

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/05/the-people-who-store-their-emotions-in-their-fingertips.html