Dec 9, 2019
Haptic & Senseware: Sensory-Driven Design Future
Haptic
As technology progress, sensory experiences in the information era became more extensible. Kenya Hara discussed in-depth about the human sensory and the possibility to enhance communication through a new holistic approach he coined as Senseware. This design approach prioritizes the human sensory receptors and augments everyday tangibility with the advent of technology. Through Senseware, Hara removes the dystopian perception of technology and leaves nostalgia behind to rediscover previously latent potential of senses. In 2004, Hara has curated and produced an exhibition he named Haptic. He used the term Haptic as a literal description for the exhibition theme which revolves around the process of perceiving objects with our senses.
This essay speculates the future of sensory experiences in the digital age in the gist of Kenya Hara's approach of Senseware and Haptic. The human tangible receptors are investigated and discussed in depth in a chapter from Kenya Hara’s seminal book entitled ‘Designing Design’ and how his Information Architecture vision could stimulate these senses. These key concepts and visions offered us a more promising design future that positions human sense as central inspiration in design.
Human body sensory receptors are credited as powerful tools to explore our relationship with the world. We are a creature with multifarious sense wrapped around our body, just to discover the world, and understand it better to negotiate with others being for our own survival. Kenya Hara viewed human beings as “an unlimited number of invisible sensory tentacles sprouting from the brain just to perceive the world”. (Hara, 2007, p69). “Within and beneath our skin lie layers of ingenious and diverse tactile receptors comprising our tactile sensing subsystem. These receptors enable us to parse textures, assess temperature and material, guide dexterous manipulations, find a page’s edge to turn it, and deduce a friend’s mood from a touch of his hand.”(MacLean, 2008) Two key terms of this particular topic are both have been extensively used by Hara in his works and exhibitions: Haptic and Senseware.
The etymology of haptic, derived from the Greek ‘haptikos’, basically means relating to the sense of touch; relating to all things physical, tangible and textural. The goal of the Haptic exhibitions in 2004 held by Kenya Hara is to awaken the human sense.
Kenya Hara claimed that all our sensory organs are apparatus to collect and amass memories that will then converge into materials for the architecture of information in our brain. He added the memories accumulated in the brain also see as a very important building material. (Hara, 2009, p157) He suggested that designers should take into consideration how the audience perceives objects with their senses through this approach. He asserted that sensory experience should be the central consideration in design alongside with form, material, and colors.
Hara has illustrated his vision of haptic possibilities within the human body. He invites people to envision the brain is ubiquitous inside the human body. Hara asserted that the mind is not singular and seated within the head; it exists throughout the body, like a system of tsubo, or acupoints. (Hara, 2007, p158). He then suggested that designers could consider where their design could be targeted on part of the body they wish to stimulate. It could be viewed as an eastern interpretation of information architecture. The profound idea of the whole diagram is how human beings perceived as an information recipient. The diagram outline the brief for the ‘Haptic’ — Awakening the Senses’.
Senseware
‘Senseware’, is a word coined by Kenya Hara to indicates any familiar thing that inspires our sensory perceptions. (Hara, 2007,p152) According to Kenya Hara, the ‘ware’ is used here as it is in ‘software’ and ‘hardware’. A mutual public belief suggests sensory experiences of human are gradually decreased parallel with the rise of technological devices that use visual as the main interaction. As McLuhan stated, “All media are extensions of some human faculty — psychic or physical”. (McLuhan, 1967). Hara agrees that the medium is the message.
Through Kenya Hara’s concept of ‘Senseware’, I aspire to explore design that stimulates the latent potential of sensory receptors that have been suppressed by the sedentary digital age lifestyle we live in, and a fresh and human-centric vision of design future, through the lens of Kenya Hara.
Naoto Fukasawa has utilized the advent of new materials and packaging technology in heightening the banal everyday experience into a haptic sensory experience through his fruit juice packaging.
Instead of indulging in techno-fetishism, Fukasawa cleverly focused on material technology and manipulate it into teasing with human being experience with fruits. These overlooked experiences and fragments of memory, however, could be stimulated through visual aggregation such as this particular packaging project by Fukasawa. “Memories not only lead the recipient to voluntarily ruminate on the past but, called up in succession as the brain receives outside stimuli, also act to flesh out an image for understanding new information.” (Hara, 2007) The trivial memories of humans holding a fruit such as a banana have been simulated by Fukasawa through the shape, texture and visual features of the juice packaging. Drinking juice from this package while holding the package has recalled that kind of memory, combined with the new experience of drinking the juice from the package. Thus, the experience of drinking juice from this package would feel as if you were drinking directly from the fruit, “We have an experience when the material experienced runs its course to fulfillment. Then and then only is it integrated within and demarcated in the general stream of experience from other experiences.” (Dewey, 1987)
Fukasawa highlights the special feature of the fruit in the series using paper technology such as fiber flocking technology which applies fiber to paper to imitate the texture of the Kiwi.
In the case of this series, the materials are not just stimulating externally but also recalled memories that have been awakened by both visual and textural stimuli. “Designing highlights subtle differences between recalled memories and reality.” (Hara, 2007, p94 )
Fukasawa highlights the special feature of the fruit in the series using paper technology such as fiber flocking technology which applies fiber to paper to imitate the texture of the Kiwi.
In the case of this series, the materials are not just stimulating externally but also recalled memories that have been awakened by both visual and textural stimuli. “Designing highlights subtle differences between recalled memories and reality.” (Hara, 2007, p94 )
In some circumstances, even material itself could aspire designer to design an object purely to tickle human sensory receptors. Kenya Hara confessed that the super-hydrophobic surface technology influences him to create the water pachinko for one of his exhibitions. This is another example of how material technology could be utilized to create an object that stimulates haptic experiences. “The ‘material’ should also elicit meaningful user experiences in and beyond its utilitarian assessment” ( Karana et al, 2015)
Through this project, Hara highlights the common experience of human pondering upon the meandering movement of water drops on a water-repellent surface such as the lotus leaves. He chooses to combine that with a pinball game which is usually with some noise of the ball. The movement of the water droplets silently through the obstacles and the hole is a brand new haptic experience. It is one of those sceneries where we as humans strangely find fulfilling and content in just witnessing the exquisite sight, a haptic experience indeed.
“Technology has no point unless it subtly awakens and activates the sense of its recipients”
In 2004, Hara has produced and curated an exhibition which I find very speculative without he being bothered to claim and label the exhibition as such. Hara declares, “This (Haptic) exhibition does not stand for nostalgia. Its creation headed straight for the future.” This statement is supported by Dejan Sudjic, with an analogy “it would be madness to swim against the current.” (Sudic,2004). This vision of manipulating technology makes Hara’s proposal attractive — senseware aims to deter us from the techno-fetishism design future, all by approaching technology as an apparatus to enhance the sensorial receptors rather than deter them. When technology lends itself to enhance human sense, perhaps we will be more embracing of what technology has to offer. The struggle of Kenya Hara to harmonize human sense with technology is profoundly critical. He is not being critical by just rejecting the assumed negative entity such as technology as a whole, but carefully consider to manipulate it to do the otherwise than the popular assumptions. He firmly stated that “Technology has no point unless it subtly awakens and activates the sense of its recipients”. (Hara,2007, p144) I propose that Kenya Hara’s vision and approach in speculating the future of design is the supposed direction of speculative design preferred as illustrated in Figure 6. If we approach technology in the vision of Kenya Hara, the future of design would be much more promising, especially to humankind.
Dewey, J. (2005). Art as experience. Penguin.
Hara, K. (2007). Designing design. Lars Muller Publishers.
Karana, E., Barati, B., Rognoli, V., & Zeeuw van der Laan, A. (2015). Material driven design (MDD): A method to design for material experiences. International Journal of Design, 9(2), 35–54.
MacLean, K. E. (2008). Haptic interaction design for everyday interfaces. Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 4(1), 149–194..
Sudjic, D. (2008). The language of things: understanding the world of desirable objects. WW Norton & Company.
