Sensory Lab was a participatory event in collaboration with students from the Design for Branded Spaces course at London of Communication (University of the Arts London) and part of LCC’s public events programme. The event ran on two consecutive days in June 2022 for 2 hours each day.

Visitors were invited to take part in a series of immersive activities challenging their perceptions through sensory stimulation via light, textures and sounds. They were then invited to leave feedback on their experience and this feedback was translated into a visual representation of qualitative data. First, using a creative toolkit method where participants could make a 3-dimensional expression of their experience and assign emotional qualities to these. Then, participants could record their emotions in a diagram.

The design of the diagram was adapted from Russell’s Circumplex Model of Affect in psychology. In Russel’s model emotions are organised across four concepts, arousal, pleasure, sleepiness and misery, represented around a circle to highlight their interrelation.

The purpose of the event was to examine and evidence the cause and effect principle between sensing and emotions. It was also a unique and memorable experience that stimulated the senses in an innovative and fun way. The event was hugely successful with over 80 people taking part.