idiosyncratic sensory associations. Crossmodality, on a basic level, is about the common
associations between the senses, e.g. acidic tastes
are higher pitches, orange/red are warm colours,
and so on.
What is the most important thing you
want the audience to take away with
them after experiencing a BitterSuite
performance?
An embodied experience of classical music,
where for 30 minutes they don’t have to think
at all – they just go on an instinctive journey
with the music.
And human intimacy shared between the
performer and the audience member. A
completely non-sexual but meaningful type of
human touch.
Talk us though the Sensory Score – how
did you come up with the concept?
It was based on the core principles of BitterSuite,
which is to choreograph experiences, performer
led, where tastes/smells and movement match
the music.
Everything begins with the music – the
experience kind of folds out continuously, a
little like it’s evolving kaleidoscopically through
other senses.
Tanya Auclair composed the music and she is
amazing. She has all of these wonderful ways of
seeing and interacting with music and a natural
ability to be able to make music that sounds
and feels 3D. It’s like each piece of music builds
its own physical world around you, which also
inspired the whole experience. She created
this piece full of integrity and joy, and has an
incredible vivacity to it. Her music is the main
inspiration for all the sensory experiences within
the Sensory Score.
What kind of research went into this?
It’s been an ongoing research obsession. We
work very closely with Clare Jonas (University
of East London) who is an extremely creative
psychologist interested in synaesthesia and
perception. She was the first person I sat down
with who talked me through what synaesthesia
truly is.
I also researched Charles Spence who is
essentially the don of the sensory research world.
He specialises in cross-modality and is quietly
influencing the way we engage with all products,
from Coca-Cola to specific deodorants. He’s the
guy that found out crinkly deodorant packaging
makes people believe the deodorant is rough on
their skin, that blue containers can make foods
taste saltier.
Cross-modality, on a
basic level, is about the
common associations
between the senses
I also did some research into snozelene rooms,
which are multi-sensory rooms used in special
needs education – spaces where all objects have
dual-sensoriality, like heated and weighted
blankets, or string LED lights that dangle
down and change colour when touched. These
were very inspiring because they make you
realise the importance of the effect of sensory
environments. And from my research I am
constantly surprised at the lack of human touch
in snozelene rooms, which is for many reasons.
This inspired us to look at how we can create
sensory environments that are more focused on
human touch.