Embodiment &
The Senses

Co-Design | Field Research | Intreviews | Cultural Probe Research | Synthesis | Prototyping | User Testing

In this participatory design project, I explored different ways of helping people outside the creative field overcome the barriers of entry into creative spaces.

I did extensive field research on different types of spaces that encourage immersive, embodied sensory experiences for diverse audiences through participation. I interviewed participants to better understand the factors that inhibit creativity and those that might help them get comfortable with the discomfort of a creative process. I put together a participatory workshop to experiment with different exploratory, hands-on processes that encourage presence and sensory attunement. I also designed a workbook that compiled prompts tested with participants through a cultural probe and fine-tuned through an iterative c-design process. 

The workbook is meant to be an unofficial guide to getting messy, making mistakes, wandering around, getting lost, finding magic, noticing the imperceptible, seeing the invisible, doing absolutely nothing, and feeling absolutely everything. Its ultimate goal is to support a lifelong journey of seeing instead of looking, listening instead of hearing, and noticing what matters instead of accepting what the world presents.