Why Exercising our Senses is Important?
Some experiences are a feast to our senses and they make us feel better. The designed environments we inhabit can play a key role and be beneficial to us in many ways.
Sensory stimulation is key to brain development and the most significant time for this takes place during the early stages of human life. (1)
Exercising our senses means exercising our brains and becoming more aware of our environment. The benefits of doing so include improving long-term memory, enhancing the learning experience, and reducing levels of anxiety. (2)
It is important then to understand the power of sensory stimulation, and how we can design environments that provide opportunities for good quality experiences.
“The environments we inhabit should be more in tune with and attentive to our biological abilities, in the awareness that nourishing sensory perception means giving our brain the possibility to grow better.” Vea Vecchi (3)
For us it is also important to understand that we have multiple senses and that they are interrelated. (4)
Experiencing a Skyspace
Searching within my own experiences regarding this subject, there is one that pops up straight away.
Some time ago I visited the James Turrell Museum in Colomé, Argentina, by chance. There was only three of us visiting the place, so we had a very direct experience with Turrell’s works.
In particular, I remember the last installation, a large atrium with white walls and stone flooring, with a big void in the ceiling, framing the sky.
It was just before sunset time. We laid down on the floor, looking up, and the experience of the artwork start unfolding. The colours of the room started changing slowly, thanks to artificial light, in relation to the changes of the natural colours of the sky, in an orchestrated manner.
The experience was beautiful, simple yet complex, and it really made me appreciate the environment, the changes of colour, the sounds of the air and my own breathing, the subtle mix of smells of that place and the smells coming from the outside fields.
Such experience stuck in my memory, and when I recall it, I get a sense of relief.
Turrell’s work is about the experience. It is very difficult to describe it in words or photos. I think they are good examples to illustrate how meaningful designed environments help us to awake our senses and retain experiences. They do something good to our brain.
Notes:
1. One of the resources where this is explained is this publication,
Chiu, Lisa, et al., Eds. Brain Facts: A Primer on the Brain and Nervous System. Society for Neuroscience, 2018: 51
2. This article summarizes well the different types of senses, which is not a closed number, and points out the importance of exercising them,
Francis, Claire. “How many senses do we have?” Sensory Trust, 15 Oct 2020, sensorytrust.org.uk/blog/how-many-senses-do-we-have. Last accessed 3 June 2021.
3. Ceppi, Giulio, and Michele Zini, Eds. Children, Spaces, Relations: Metaproject for an Environment for Young Children. Reggio Children, 1998: 134
4. In the following article I found a good explanation of this, saying that defining what senses are is not simple, and that senses often blend,
Jarrett, Christian. “Psychology: How many senses do we have?” BBC Future, 19 November 2014, bbc.com/future/article/20141118-how-many-senses-do-you-have. Last accessed 3 June 2021
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