Making sense of multisensory experiences
How would a science centre look if it had been designed using all our senses? In the age of digital media, museums and science centres around the world are struggling to attract young and diverse audiences. Some science organisations have realised that engaging other senses than sight (i.e. taste, touch, smell and sound) may be a solution to creating a lasting and intimate connection with the audience. Involving other senses, through scent and story-telling, can be a wonderful way for experiences to be more inclusive. In the attractions sector and other tourist venues, experiences are packed with sensations and trigger emotions, but can these experiences also communicate complex scientific content? How can taste, touch, smell and sound influence the way we experience exhibitions?
Join this reverse session to discuss the potential of multisensory experiences as a feasible way to drive the public to visit on-site and put the science centre back on centre stage.
Session speakers
Vincent will share his experience on a exhibition currently under development; Banquet. An exhibition topic which brings ideas of pleasure, gathers people, comes with challenges, hands-on as well as sensorial experiences, and widens on societal maters ?
Project Manager - Programming and Travelling Exhibitions
Flora & Gwenaël will present “Sensory Odyssey”: an immersive journey that invites visitors to discover 8 natural ecosystems, using their senses and perception as their only compass. An exhibition with almost no text or objects: a challenge for the French MNHN, which developed the project in co-production with Sensory Odyssey Studios. A real collaborative effort between a multitude of skills made it possible to work together on form and content, and to overcome the challenges of this unusual production.
Chief Executive Officer and Founder SENSORY ODYSSEY
Flora & Gwenaël will present “Sensory Odyssey”: an immersive journey that invites visitors to discover 8 natural ecosystems, using their senses and perception as their only compass. An exhibition with almost no text or objects: a challenge for the French MNHN, which developed the project in co-production with Sensory Odyssey Studios. A real collaborative effort between a multitude of skills made it possible to work together on form and content, and to overcome the challenges of this unusual production.
Michael will use the example of the mobile educational escape game Ocean Eye – a new approach to make the challenges that microplastics pose directly and playfully comprehensible – to provide insight into the challenges and hurdles of developing multisensory exhibitions. Interviews with player-groups showed that the multisensory implementation of the puzzles enables greater immersion and appeal to groups in a variety of ways, but does this also increase the learnings and change the experience?
