Investigations into music and sound through restaurant atmosphere and the cross-modal functioning of the senses

Abstract

The growing realization that our understanding of the world is subject to multisensory perception has led cognitive neuroscientists to begin researching the ways in which the senses can be integrated more effectively into our everyday experiences (See Bruno & Pavani, 2018; Calvert et al., 2004; Stein, 2012). Multisensory perception has begun to be examined through new approaches to architecture, consumer shopping, and most relevant to this thesis, through restaurant design. Until recently however, most design and consumer experiences have been created to specifically influence and target visual human biases; preferences in visual aesthetics, perception, and audiovisual design, have demonstrated the influence of visuals on our creative and consumer experiences and thus, the lack of integration due the other senses. Architect Bruce Mau asserts this point in saying that, “We have allowed two of our sensory domains - sight and sound - to dominate our design imagination. In fact, when it comes to the culture of architecture and design, we create and produce almost exclusively for one sense - the visual” (Mau, 2018). Mau’s statement corroborates the current trend in visual biases of design and further highlights the necessity to integrate the other senses in the approach to design.