The multisensory aspect of life is garnering more attention and rekognition, as the hyperstimulating, digital society now keeps us exposed and entertained constantly.
And in creating societal value (and returns on investments), demands are ever increasing. So we add more stimuli. And we focus more on hedonism. And on active, transformative explorations. And tend to forget taking the sensory capacity and needs of our guests and co-creators into consideration.
What is "senscaping"?
In senscaping you create an adequate experience "landscape", with a strategic awareness towards the multisensory dimension of
- the person,
- the environment as well as
- the activity itself
That means acknowledging which sensory factors may influence (the desired impact of) any given experience.
Senscaping is the difference between "cold upwards led lighting from the ceiling", and "warm lighting, shaping corners and hearts with secretive ambience and love"...
An example of such "senscaping" is the creation of a guest experience in a gourmet restaurant.
All the intentional, coordinated actions going into designing and co-creating a wholesome gastronomic experience constitutes the senscaping, or the performance of the experience designer.
The exceptional gastronomy experience is MUCH MORE than the smell and taste of the food. It is more than the sum of elements. The exceptional, multisensory gastronomy experience is EVERYTHING from the interior decoration, the choice of background music, the room acoustics, the room lighting, room temperatures, portion sizes, the weight and quality of the cutlery, the visual appearance of the serving, the temperatures and textures of the food and drinks, the tone and movements of the waiters, the comfort and stability of the seating arrangement etc.
So, senscaping is what takes place when preparing for the guest's arrival, what you're offering during the guest's visit and how the guest perceives it after departure. It's the entire "dramaturgy" of the experience, expressed through physical, sensory signatures.
Any change in your senscape (whether planned or unexpected), may change your desired outcome for the intended customer experience, e.g.:
- an increase in volume of the music, or someone suddenly yelling across the room
- a decrease in the volume of the waiter's voice
- an instability of a chair or the table itself
- a different material of the chair fabric
- an increase in the temperature of the meal served
- a change in colour or darkness of the restaurant lighting, or someone suddenly rushing through the room
- a change in the scent from the kitchen (or the smell from cleaners or restrooms)... everything matters...
Have you heard about the SensOctagon?
It's an eight-dimensional tool to help you design exceptional experiences with a specific sensory awareness and strategy. In other words, it's "la créme de la créme" of senscaping.
Sensory drivers behind every choice, behaviour and experience
Consciously, or unconsciously, we base ALL of our life choices, actions and behaviours on the way we sense ourselves... and ourselves in the world around us. Not a thought, emotion or experience can pass through our consciousness, without us having processed sensory stimuli.
Therefore, Sensory Academy claims senses are a primary driver for any kind of action or reaction, and thus, any kind of consumer experience.
What does this mean in real life?
Well, take the purchase of a scarf, for instance. You may buy a scarf because you need to feel pleasantly warm, thus not feel cold. You sensing (or remembering the sensation of) the temperature on your skin is a driver for action. Fashion and social cues might influence your choice as well, but I bet you wouldn't wear a wool scarf in 45 degrees celcius. Unless it was to bring you shade (and again, functionally sensory comfort)
You may choose the green scarf over the red one, because the colour has an emotionel impact on you, based on previous sensory experience involving the red or green colour. Aestethically (thus visually), you may simply like the red one more, and feel it enhances your skin complexion.
Your choice of colour therefore is a sensory motivated choice as well. (Visual) colour stimuli imprint themselves to memory and emotion, through the sensory processing.
And another thing: Are you by any chance one of those people, removing that itchy clothing brand from the neck of your shirt?
You may then choose a silk scarf over the icelandic wool scarf, and even endure some more cold, because the tactile feel of the silky one, to the sensitive skin of your throat, tells you to. Avoiding the tactile discomfort of rough wool fabric against your sensitive neck, being another (sensory motivated) driver for choise in action.
... So you may choose the silk scarf....Or you may in fact prefer the icelandic wool, because it's way too cold outside for you to really find the silk one beneficial. The temperature then becomes a more significant sensory driver, than the tactile skin sensation. Achieving comfort, avoiding discomfort...
And the same goes for that coffee with a danish pastry you buy, because the nice aroma, oozing from the coffeeshop, drags you into the cafe, the sound of cozy ambience music relaxes your stressed head, and the postural support of the comfortable chairs to your exhausted body, all are sensory drivers to make you stay a while longer.... If you prefer your coffee or pastry with a hint of cinnamon flavour, it might be because the odour (still a sensory driver) of the cinnamon induces warm emotions in you with memories of many a cozy christmas evening with your childhood family.
Sensory survival
Yeah... it sounds a bit pretentious. But our senses actually are that impactfull. Every experience we have in life, is determined by the way our nervous system processes sensory impressions (stimuli). Stimuli from our surroundings, as well as from inside our own bodies, are countless. Billions of stimuli everyday. Constantly. Even during sleep.
And they all affect our autonomous nervous system, nudging for increase/inhibition in either sympathetic or para-sympathetic activity.
Now, let's take the tour a little deeper into your brain.
The plasticity of our brains
Unbelievably comprehensive networks in our brains process all stimuli to protect us from danger. Secure our survival. We share the ability to develop and utilize sensory capabilities with all other biological entities, from mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and insects to plants. Did you for instance know, that flowers will increase sugar production up to 20 % for the first six seconds after hearing buzzing of honey bees?
Throughout our whole nervous system extending to the most outer skin, stimuli are identified and directed straight to a network deep inside our brain stem, to be assessed, filtered and handled; Do they need to be onward-distributed for some sort of response, or can they be inhibited and dismissed?
This sensory assesment is a perpetual process linked to nucelar and synaptic networks located not only in our brainstem, but throughout our entire bodily being. And mind you! This takes place constantly! Billions of signals are simultaneously being processed for us to generate thoughts and emotion and execute action. It's been like that for as long as we've existed as human beings with nervous systems. Developing with a brain in constant development, trying to adapt to the perpetually developing circumstances.
Plasticity is in fact the most important word when talking about the brain. It's basically the principle of "use it or lose it".... and come to think of it... why would the nervous system not develop and adapt in a perpetual process, just like everything else?
Adequate or inadequate, that's the question
The way these neural networks process all of the signals, by filtering them, inhibiting some and distributing the rest, will determine how we experience everything. What we think and feel about it. And how we respond to all that we're exposed to. Without this sensory processing (or with dysfunctional processing), chaos can occur. We would ultimately end up completely helpless, without ability to interprete and comprehend (inter)action. Or to produce response by prioritizing and initiating adequate action.
Without the capacity and ability of our respirational breathing system to assess whether we are trying to breathe in air or water, we would drown. Simple as that. In fact, we would not survive, without some form of sensory processing. Our sensory systems are what keep us alive, conscious and (well)functioning. Adequate sensory processing is what keeps us capacitated, competent and content.
Remember what covid19 released when people lost their sense of smell and taste?...it's can be very hard to experience sensory dysfunction occur...
Moving from 5 senses to 8 systems...
To this day, many people still relate to the conventional, but very limited, view of us having "five senses". And yes, we do have "five senses". Vision, hearing, taste, smelt and touch.
Today we can, however, categorize the sensory domain of our neurological functions into eight (8) sensory systems, each governing its own "roam" with different functional groups of sensory stimuli, relating the the same sensory modality.
Example: Vision. This sensory system governs processing of different visual stimuli, relating to eg. light, shade, colour, contrast, contour, movement and depth.
The magic of eight
Our comprehension of the sensory nervous system relies on our capacity for pattern recognition. So this way of categorizing is a bit artificial. This is only one of several possible ways of structuring our sensory functions, in order to enhance our own ability to cognitively comprehend the infinitely complex neurological system that is our brain and nerves.
Our nervous system is exceptionally powerful, yet our brains may not be adequately developed for the amount of stimuli we're constantly exposed to in this modern world... so the poor system tends to keep us alert, constantly... and in some cases, it floods.
Hyperactivation - Constant alertness in contemporary society
Your nervous system can wear itself out from having to multitask.
High level of neural arousal over time - alertness - will cause your bodily functions to be in sympatic activity, rather than parasympatic. Sympatic activity causes your body to be highly reactive, as oppose to parasympatic which will initiate functions related to rest and reproduction. Reactiveness causes changes in hormonal levels, metabolisme etc.
Fight, flight or freeze
Having to not only be aware of danger, but also to relate to a fast paced lifestyle, will take their toll on your body and mind. And even change the pace with which your telomeres in the brain age. By fast paced, I mean the intense exposure to information and stimuli you're exposed to, from around the world and in your immediate vecinity... especially in cities.
The outer world will leave its impressions same as your inner world will, because we're also experiencing changed patterns of mobility and physical activity. These are all stimuli to which your nervous system will adapt.
If stimuli become too intense, too repetitive or too comprehensive... they can become "stressors". Stressors will put a strain on your nervous system to the point where the functionality of body and mind will be affected. Your attention span will diminish. You'll be "all over the place" rather than one. And in the future, rather than here and now. Maybe, your patience will also diminish, you'll ultimately be triggered by the tiniest things, and react aggressively... or not at all...
If stimuli stop occurring, for example if your lifestyle becomes more physically inactive, your nervous system will adapt, eventually by reducing physical and cognitive capacities... also referred to with the saying: "Use it, or lose it"...
Most people will, sooner or later, sense the protests of a "worn out" or "sleeping" nervous system.
Senses before emotions & thoughts
Our emotions and thoughts can be understood as "biproducts" of our sensory processing and sensorymotor response, occurring in the spectrum between the point of us prossesing the stimuli and the point of responding to them.
Fear is example of an emotion occurring as a "biproduct" of the brain registering that we're too close to the edge, as thoughts are generated, while we process the visual stimuli of the abyss, and the tactile stimuli of the strong winds...
The emotional reactions to stressors can, over time, become inconvenient, and manifest as anger or sadness.
Awareness is power
Understanding the dynamics of the nervous system and the way our sensory systems impact our experiences, our thoughts and emotions as well as our (re)actions and interactions, will enhance your ability to navigate this world and manage your ressources in a present state of being, while also caring for your physiological needs.
At Sensory Academy we believe in the power of practical learning through embodied cognition. By understanding these dynamics by experience as well as scientifically, we can use that knowledge to decrease dissatisfaction and increase thriving.