Atmospherics: Sensational Media
Today’s destination designers are using the multi-sensory experience of atmospheric design to tell deeper and richer stories. Media that tells these stories cannot just be visual. Engaging other senses is necessary for a more powerful moment. While multi-sensory experiences are as old as time, the science of atmospheric design today is evolving rapidly as technology and psychology team up with designers’ imaginations.
New research suggests that our senses are more robust than scientists initially believed. Lawrence Rosenblum, a professor of psychology at the University of California, explores this in his book, See What I’m Saying: The Extraordinary Powers of Our Five Senses. He writes, “Research in perceptual psychology and brain science is revealing that our senses pick up information about the world that we thought was only available to other species. . . . We have hidden sensory channels we’re using all the time. This enables us to perceive things, often without awareness of where we get the information.”
Smelly or Scented?
Imagine walking into a restaurant that stinks. Do you eat there? No! Scent amplifies our life and the visitor experience. Creating authentic aromas in attractions triggers our instincts the same way they do in a restaurant.
Some institutions are already using scent to engage visitors. For example, at the San Francisco Dungeon, scenting systems in various rooms release odors that match their scenes—including the scent of blood in the butcher room.
Another example is Heathrow Airport’s Scent Globe, installed in 2014. Visitors choose one of five countries and inhale its essence. Thailand offers a blend of lemongrass, ginger, and coconut while Brazil conjures coffee, tobacco, and jasmine.
Can you imagine if we took this further and into different organizations? Consider how being able to smell chemical dye, machine friction dust, and the sweat of hardworking bodies would elevate the experience of visiting a 1930s knitting mill.
Or how much more engaging would it be to inhale the aromas of turned earth, rain, and flower petals while gazing at Hiroshige's Hibiscus?
Loud or Memorable?
Sound is vital in design. It increases memorability and, if exceptionally unique, can even become its own intellectual property. Disney’s Haunted Mansion wouldn’t be the same without the delightful voice of the Ghost Host, and the Pirates of the Caribbean might not have sailed without that memorable theme song.
Using sound to immerse visitors can also convey different moments in history or concepts that are hard to otherwise understand. The Lunch Counter Sit-In simulation at the National Center for Civil And Human Rights is an impactful experience of audio creating a powerful experience. Visitors try to keep their hands peacefully on the counter as aggressive voices taunt them and the sounds of violence ring.
Sound also increases accessibility for visitors who are blind or have low vision. Attractions are increasingly employing the principles of Empathic Design, including audio description. VocalEyes is a non-profit that trains attractions to use audio description to increase accessibility. The company defines it as the use of precise, logically structured language, interwoven with historic references and cultural narratives, to evoke an artifact or place. This experience can be delivered live, as an audio-described tour, or as a recorded guide for visitors to use independently.
Corporal or Not?
Fans, misters, and spritzers: these wonderful 20th-century atmospheric tools still pack an emotional punch, but the future of touch is haptics.
Haptic feedback is a mode of communication between a person and a machine, and it is already part of your everyday life. The vibration of your cell phone or game controller is haptic. The machine-made movement is affecting your somatosensory system, which detects experiences such as touch, texture, softness, pressure, pain, itch, tickle, and muscle movement.
One of the ways this rapidly evolving technology is applied is by using ultrasound to create a sense of touch in midair. An array of ultrasonic transducers creates a feeling of pressure that allows touchscreen-style interaction to happen without a touchscreen. As haptics evolve, we might be able to feel a burst of pressure as a wizard casts a “magic spell” at our hearts, or experience a tingling sensation along our arms that warns us of a dragon’s mystic presence.
Putting It Together
Imagine an atmospheric-rich, escape-room style maze.
A sulfuric scent permeates a burnt, post-apocalyptic fir forest. Crows caw and voices whisper warnings as we surge through snapping branches in our quest for map fragments. We chase disappearing lights as wild winds push us towards an invisible, pressurized “wall of fear.”
Engaging multiple senses in an immersive physical environment builds exciting and repeatable attractions. We will continue to examine interactive media in next week’s Destinology. Join us to learn more!
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