Sensory Design Studio
Today, I celebrate two years since I published my first book. The title came from a passing comment my daughter, Ansley, made to me as we were lying beside one another, trying to fall asleep on a rainy spring night in 2016. She said to me, “Mommy, how do I stay awake?” I said to her, “are you sure that’s what you want to do?” She nodded her tired little head and snuggled it into my arm. I explain, “Well […]
“Thought-Forms, a strange, beguiling, frequently pretentious, utterly original book first published in 1901, emerged from this ferment of late-Victorian mysticism. It was written by Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater, erstwhile members of the London Theosophical Society alongside Yeats, and it features a stunning sequence of images that illustrate the book’s central argument: emotions, sounds, ideas and events manifest as visual auras.” — Benjamin Breen, Victorian Occultism and the Art of Synesthesia Contents Selected Reads Sensory Entrancement Sensory Resources Chuckles + […]
“Unlike most reading logs, there are no requirements on the type of book to read. Readers don’t have to keep track of time or write down the book title. The only requirement? To read — anything! There is a list of interesting and fun reading opportunities, and kids check them off as they are completed. For instance, kids can read a comic book or a newspaper article, read in the bathtub or listen to an audiobook, read to a family […]
“Welch’s mother is a professor of Renaissance studies at King’s College London who worried about her daughter skipping university to focus on her musical career, lamenting “what a waste of a brain!” Both the lyrics and the poetry in Useless Magic validate Welch’s choice, offering a chance to appreciate on the bare stage of the blank page the fineness of her words. And like fellow poet-musician Nick Cave (thanked for “inspiration and encouragement” here), Welch has found a way for the song and the voice of the rabbit-hearted girl to coexist. As she says herself: “you can have everything.”
“According to Williams, however, the recent attention given to spoken word as a distinct genre within the arts is more a return to something that has deep and rich roots in our society: “The resurgence of poetry is cyclical and perpetual. It’s always engaged a new generation of youth who have brought it back to the forefront of culture and put new terms on it, whether it’s beat poetry, bebop poetry, slam poetry – there’s always been these resurgences. But it’s ancient.”
“Turns out that ASMR is pretty special. According to a recently published study in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease (catchy name!), the part of your brain responsible for ASMR doesn’t get lost to Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s tends to put people into layers of confusion, and the study confirms that music can sometimes actually lift people out of the Alzheimer’s haze and bring them back to (at least a semblance of) normality… if only for a short while. ASMR is powerful stuff!”
“You have expressed an interest in capturing ‘the quick passage of time.’ How do you evoke this concept in your paintings?
Time…Man is looking at time constantly. He looks at the clock, he lives from hour to hour. It scares me. That’s why I try to capture time in my paintings. Stop time, a snippet of a second. I’m painting fast, I’m racing against time. A surreal challenge.
The concept of time irritates me. Man was born and has only a certain amount of time. That is life, unfortunately. This is reality. I have a big imagination. Sometimes I think it’s too big. I sometimes stop the time in my imagination. And I feel totally free, like I was the ocean. And this feeling I paint on the canvas.”
“Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman invented the Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer (VEST), a wearable tactile display that translates myriad kinds of information, from speech to sounds to digital data, into patterns of vibrations on the skin. The device was inspired by Eagleman’s study of synesthesia, the fascinating neurological phenomenon whereby stimulation of one sense involuntarily triggers another sensory pathway.”
Sensory Stories | Social Narratives | Space Designs
Embark on a mesmerizing journey into the enchanting world of sensory storytelling! Discover the transformative power of immersive sensory experiences that captivate and engage audiences of all ages and capacities. From beloved children's classics like "The Rainbow Fish" and "Where the Wild Things Are" to the magical realm of Harry Potter, unleash the power of storytelling through the senses. Dive…
Want to use your senses to inspire your seasons this year? Making Madness: My Sensory Journal & Guided Seasonal Planner is available to ship on Amazon now. Today, you can officially purchase a print copy to enjoy. It transforms your daily planner into a mighty keepsake chronicle of your sensory experience through one-year of May 2022 to May 2023. It will…
Embark on an exhilarating journey into the enchanting world of Maurice Sendak's beloved classic, 'Where the Wild Things Are,' right from the comfort of your own sensory spaces! Welcome to Chrysanthemum Stories, where we're bringing the Wild Rumpus to life with this DIY immersive sensory experience that will ignite our senses and spark our imagination. Get ready to release the…
A STORY ABOUT FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS Join us on a trek through the woods as we follow the Wise Old Owl's directions to find the elusive Purple Flower Meadow in this engaging sensory story. This story is a lesson in following directions mixed into the sensory experience of walking through a woodland. We explore the winding path through Heather Heath, cross…