Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 05:47PM Seeing the Future Synaesthetic
I think there are real life rockstars - people who think about and accomplish extraordinary things. One of them is Beau Lotto and I interviewed him on behalf of frog design for a special design mind magazine issue on TED Global (Fall 09 print), which took place in July in the UK. Beau, a neuroscientist and artist (not my labels, which are limiting), has dedicated a portion of his research to virtual synaesthesia.
Here's a brief excerpt from the article:
Seeing The Future Synaesthetic
Like neuroscientist, Beau Lotto (who I interviewed on behalf of frog for this issue), I don’t research synaesthesia – I prefer to create it artificially. Beau calls this “virtual synaesthesia.” I call it “associational.” While Beau might want to leverage virtual synaesthesia for experimenting with the brain’s adaptability, I want to cultivate and harvest it for designing thinking and problem solving. Why?
“You can teach people through [synesthetic] experiences to heighten their ability to find new relationships and new associations that haven’t been discovered before. That’s the creativity.” Beau Lotto
And here is Beau's site: http://www.lottolabs.com

