Design for the Senses: materiality and sensory perception of objects
Acknowledging the universal hegemony of vision which has its origins in the vision-centred conception of knowledge and truth in Ancient Greece and culminates in our modern Western ‘society of the spectacle’, a sensory pathology is detected which consists in the fact that the relative contribution of touch in our experience has fallen to 1.5%, of taste to 1%, of smell to 3,5% and of hearing to 11% compared to 83% for vision.
Through the phenomenological approach of examples derived from the world of architecture, art and design, an attempt is made to demonstrate the equal importance of all our senses when it comes to perceiving our designed environment and a need is expressed, namely to redefine the role of the various senses in the way we design and perceive the space and the objects that surround us.
Dr George Liamadis, Assistant Professor AUTH, Head of the Industrial Design Lab, School of Visual & Applied Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki