Mapping a multi-sensory identity territory at the early design stage

This article presents a kansei design methodology. It is placed at the very beginning of the design process and aims to influence the following steps in order to improve the user's understanding and experiencing of the designed product. The experimentation combines in a subtle way the design thinking approach of learning by doing and the kansei engineering quantitative approach. The research presented is based on the results of a previous study that defined the semantic and emotional scope of future hybrid cars for European using visual stimuli. This kansei design methodology creates and assesses multi-sensory atmospheres is order to provide tangible direction composed of vision, touch, hearing and smell stimuli. From the cognitive and affective responses of the 42 participants we were able to detail 3 directions for future cars interiors that aim to enrich the styling design briefs and to influence the design strategies such as the management of the different grades. The research presented here was supported by the Kansei Design department from Toyota Motor Europe (TME-KD). This collaboration also brought an industrial context to it.SUPPORTED BY TOYOTA EUROP

THE EFFECT OF APPLYING ESTABLISHED COLOR THEORY TO PACKAGING WHEN VISIBLE PRODUCT AND EXTERNAL LABELS EXIST SIMULTANEOUSLY

Color is affected by what is around it. A color doesn\u27t necessarily look the same when its placed against two different colored backgrounds (Ryan, William, and Theodore Conover, 2004) Oftentimes, designers are given a blank package and given the task of creating a label or package for the product. What is missing is the product, which can be an integral part of this design process. What is not yet to be determined by current packaging research is how colors work together through the product and package. One way to determine this would be through transparent bottled packages that contain external labels. Using various color harmonies, with the base color determined by the product color, this can be evaluated. Transparent packages with visible products containing colored labels were evaluated using established color theory. This research sought to understand the following questions: [RQ1]: Can established color theory be applied to packaging when visible product and external labels exist simultaneously? [RQ2]: Do consumers prefer a particular color harmony when compared to others? This was assessed using eye tracking metrics and overall preference testing. Eye tracking data yielded quantitative data that was statistically analyzed. This was completed through analysis of variance (ANOVA). A post experiment survey was given to collect participant\u27s demographics and additional data completed through Chi-squared tests for association

An Interactive System for Generating Music from Moving Images

Moving images contain a wealth of information pertaining to motion. Motivated by the interconnectedness of music and movement, we present a framework for transforming the kinetic qualities of moving images into music. We developed an interactive software system that takes video as input and maps its motion attributes into the musical dimension based on perceptually grounded principles. The system combines existing sonification frameworks with theories and techniques of generative music. To evaluate the system, we conducted a two-part experiment. First, we asked participants to make judgements on video-audio correspondence from clips generated by the system. Second, we asked participants to give ratings for audiovisual works created using the system. These experiments revealed that 1) the system is able to generate music with a significant level of perceptual correspondence to the source video’s motion and 2) the system can effectively be used as an artistic tool for generative composition

Topology of Networks in Generalized Musical Spaces

The abstraction of musical structures (notes, melodies, chords, harmonic or rhythmic progressions, etc.) as mathematical objects in a geometrical space is one of the great accomplishments of contemporary music theory. Building on this foundation, I generalize the concept of musical spaces as networks and derive functional principles of compositional design by the direct analysis of the network topology. This approach provides a novel framework for the analysis and quantification of similarity of musical objects and structures, and suggests a way to relate such measures to the human perception of different musical entities. Finally, the analysis of a single work or a corpus of compositions as complex networks provides alternative ways of interpreting the compositional process of a composer by quantifying emergent behaviors with well-established statistical mechanics techniques. Interpreting the latter as probabilistic randomness in the network, I develop novel compositional design frameworks that are central to my own artistic research