Left to Right: Dot Watch, 2017; Dot Incorporation (Seoul, Korea, founded 2014); Anodized aluminum case, gyroscope, touch sensors, wireless MCU platform, leather; Courtesy of Dot Incorporation. Cotton Candy Dish, 2017; Virginia San Fratello (American, born 1971) and Ronald Rael (American, born 1971), Studio Rael Fratello (Oakland, California, USA, founded 1995) and Emerging Objects (Oakland, California, USA, founded 2012); 3D-printed sugar, aromatics; Courtesy of Emerging Objects. Dot Watch, 2017; Prototype, exhibition design for The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, 2017; Studio Joseph; Curtain made from Bolon fibers
Previously On View: April 13, 2018 through October 28, 2018
Explore experimental works and practical solutions designed to inspire wonder and new ways of accessing our world. Wander through a scented snowstorm, play a furry instrument in a Tactile Orchestra, investigate the sonic properties of glass, and experience many more multisensory experiences from some of the world’s most creative thinkers, including Christopher Brosius, KunstLAB Arnhem, Studio Roos Meerman, Maya+Rouvelle, and more. With over 65 design projects and more than 40 objects and installations to touch, hear, and smell, The Senses is an inclusive celebration of the sensory richness of design.
Sensory design recognizes that we understand and navigate the world with all five of our senses. Organized into nine thematic sections, The Senses demonstrates that by opening up to multiple sensory dimensions, designers reach a greater diversity of users. Maps that can be touched as well as seen facilitate mobility and knowledge for sighted, low-vision, and blind users. Audio devices translate sound into vibrations that can be felt on the skin. Tableware and kitchen tools use color and form to guide people living with dementia or vision loss. These innovations are beneficial to all users as sensory design enhances awareness of the body and creates new emotional terrain through its stimulation of our visceral responses.
Designed to be an accessible experience welcoming to visitors of all abilities, The Senses’ exhibition features labels with key elements in braille and a custom smartphone app that will connect visitors to exhibition content via text or audio. Additional accessibility features include T-coil–complaint audio devices and audio descriptions explaining the visual content of videos. The museum will also offer dynamic descriptive exhibition tours of The Senses with trained museum educators, as well as programming for visitors with sensory differences.
Use the free Accessible Exhibitions app to access descriptive and interpretive content in streaming text and audio formats for The Senses. A visitor can enter a content number and choose to read the text, hear it with a screen reader, or listen to an audio recording. The content number entry will also deliver videos and images with accompanying verbal descriptions.
AEIOU I Rear Bump series, from the Sensory Dessert Spoon collection, 2015–18; Jinhyun Jeon (South Korean, born 1981), Studio Jinhyun Jeon; Stainless steel, lacquered and/or 24-carat gold plated; Courtesy of Jinhyun Jeon
Tactile Headset, 2014–18; Alessandro Perini
Frogspawn Typography, from the Visceral Typography collection, 2014; Monique Goossens (Dutch, born 1971); Digital print; Courtesy of Monique Goossens
A call to action for a multisensory design practice, with thematic essays on topics ranging from inclusive design approaches to creative uses of sensory experiences. Order now from SHOP Cooper Hewitt.
The exhibition The Senses: Design Beyond Vision challenged Cooper Hewitt's conservation team in its innovative use of multisensory installations. Learn how conservators addressed specific object issues, including scratch-and-sniff wallpaper, pillows, and chocolate.
Ellen Lupton, co-curator of the exhibition The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, provides a descriptive audio tour through two dozen projects in the exhibition, with step-by-step guidance for visitors with blindness or low vision. Approximately 30 minutes. Part 1: Getting Started Part 2: Shaping Sound Part 3: Tactile Library Part 4: Wrapping Up (Also available on Soundcloud)....
Topographies dazzles our eyes and walls with a trompe l’oeil effect that successfully tricks our senses—the seemingly three-dimensional surface is deceptively flat. To create the pattern, designers stacked multiple sheets of paper and tore away portions of the surface by hand, forming canyon-like valleys of various widths and depths. The wallcovering’s name refers to the...
In celebration of our new exhibition The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, this Object of the Day post explores the multisensory experience of an object in Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. This bright, hand-colored print dated to about 1750 and signed by François-Thomas Mondon depicts a group of figures in a landscape composed of trees, flowers, and...
In celebration of The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, this Object of the Day post takes a multisensory approach to an object in Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. Jelly candies in the form of fruit? Toys for children? Miniatures? This whimsical and colorful object is actually a button made of celluloid plastic. In an open-topped crate, a...
In celebration of The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, this Object of the Day post takes a multisensory approach to an object in Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. In George E. Ohr‘s studio in Biloxi, Mississippi, a sign announced, “Greatest art potter on earth.”[1] Ohr’s talent matched his moniker—today, he is recognized as a pioneer of American...
In celebration of our new exhibition The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, this Object of the Day post explores the multisensory experience of an object in Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. The invention of the incandescent light bulb in the nineteenth century not only advanced technology, but also design, especially into the twentieth century. This bulbous, blown...
In celebration of The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, this Object of the Day post takes a multisensory approach to an object in Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. This cut and folded paper sphere created by Masahiro Chatani in 1980 is a complex example of “origamic architecture,” a type of kirigami (切り紙)—from the words kiru (to cut)...
In celebration of our new exhibition The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, this Object of the Day post explores the multisensory experience of an object in Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. The name of Lucien Lelong unquestionably conjures up the luxurious world of French fashion. Born in Paris as the son of a textile shop owner, Lelong...
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Left to Right: Dot Watch, 2017; Dot Incorporation (Seoul, Korea, founded 2014); Anodized aluminum case, gyroscope, touch sensors, wireless MCU platform, leather; Courtesy of Dot Incorporation. Cotton Candy Dish, 2017; Virginia San Fratello (American, born 1971) and Ronald Rael (American, born 1971), Studio Rael Fratello (Oakland, California, USA, founded 1995) and Emerging Objects (Oakland, California, USA, founded 2012); 3D-printed sugar, aromatics; Courtesy of Emerging Objects. Dot Watch, 2017; Prototype, exhibition design for The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, 2017; Studio Joseph; Curtain made from Bolon fibers
