Sensehacking: How to Use the Power of Your Senses for Happier, Healthier Living

Description

The world expert in multisensory perception on the remarkable ways we can use our senses to lead richer lives How can the furniture in your home affect your wellbeing? What colour clothing will help you play sport better? And what simple trick will calm you after a tense day at work? In this revelatory book, pioneering and entertaining Oxford professor Charles Spence shows how our senses change how we think and feel, and how by 'hacking' them we can reduce stress, become more productive and be happier. We like to think of ourselves as rational beings, and yet it's the scent of expensive face cream that removes wrinkles (temporarily), the noise of the crowd really does affect the referee's decision, and food not only tastes 10 per cent better if you use a tablecloth, you'll also eat 50 per cent more of it. By understanding our senses, we can take greater control of our lives. Sensehacking explores how the senses are stimulated in nature, at home, in the workplace and at play. In a world where we're suffering from the sensory overload of 24-hour news cycles and also prioritising physical distance from one another, Spence explains 'touch hunger' and shows how we can overcome it. Understanding how our senses interact can produce incredible results. This is popular science at its unbelievable best.

Professor Charles Spence is the world expert in multisensory perception and experience design, having spent over 20 years researching how people perceive the world around them at the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Oxford University. He has consulted for many multinational companies, including Unilever, PepsiCo and Nestle, advising on various aspects of multisensory design, packaging, and branding.

Spence does for the senses what Marie Kondo does for homes -- Avery Gilbert, author of What the Nose Knows Talks total sense, lots of fun facts, right up there with the best of the best -- Chris Evans An extraordinary compendium of everything you need to know about how to cope with the hidden sensory overload of modern life, engagingly told -- Robin Dunbar, author of How Many Friends Does One Person Need? In Sensehacking, Charles Spence offers a whole new twist on what it means to 'make sense' of the world around us. Drawing on his renowned expertise in the field of crossmodal science, Professor Spence shares a wealth of insights and practical tips that will help you improve your social, cognitive and emotional well-being through sensory stimulation and management -- Steve Keller, Sonic Strategy Director, Studio Resonate at Pandora Charles Spence draws on his wealth of experience to provide insights into how our senses are interwoven in every aspect of our lives. Spence shows how sensehacking - which he defines as 'using the power of the senses, and sensory stimulation, to help improve our social, cognitive and emotional well-being' - is all around us. In addition to practical suggestions for enriching our own lives, Sensehacking provides unsettling insights into how commercial interests are manipulating our perceptions and behaviour. This book will shed light on much that goes unnoticed, and is especially timely in these pandemic times. -- Roger Kneebone, author of Expert Truly accessible, entertaining and informative. On every page there are ideas to set you thinking and widen your horizons -- Heston Blumenthal, OBE, on Gastrophysics Wonderfully curious and thought-provoking . . . brilliant -- Bee Wilson, Guardian, on Gastrophysics Popular science at its best -- Daniel Levitin, NYT bestselling author of This Is Your Brain on Music, on Gastrophysics A fascinating read. Given how pervasive technology has become, the way we relate to our senses could be the most crucial element in creating environments that are conducive to emotional and cognitive well-being. The science shows how we should evolve from an audiovisual dominated world, to one that caters mindfully to all our senses -- Charles Michel, Chef-in-residence at the Crossmodal Research Laboratory, University of Oxford Charles Spence is the paragon of the transdisciplinary scholar, a Renaissance man for the digital age. From his base at the Crossmodal Research Lab at Oxford, Professor Spence moves comfortably beyond the confines of experimental psychology and across the disciplines of the humanities, social sciences, design art and industry, while also crossing or merging the senses. Sensehacking is a tour de force of the sensory studies literature, a synthesis without equal. This book contains lots of helpful tips about how to use your senses to lead a healthier, happier life (and insights into how designers and marketers are only too happy to arrange your senses for you in the interests of moving merchandise), but it above all concerns "getting the sensory balance right." Rebalancing the senses and diverse sensations relative to each other is vital to our cognitive, emotional and social well-being, so do get hacking by reading this book from the finest and most innovative multisensory (and intersensory) mind of our times -- David Howes, author of The Sensory Studies Manifesto Exceedingly appealing . . . promises to make us feel happier, relaxed, more focused and productive, and improve sleep and perception -- Emma Firth * Vogue * Why the senses are key to our happiness . . . If you could summarise Spence's decades of academic research at Oxford University into how our senses affect us, you would conclude that we are primal creatures who are happiest and healthiest in nature: seeing, hearing and smelling it . . . packed with studies [. . .] on pain, attention, memory, mood and so on . . . Sensehacking essentially offers a way for us to use our smarts and technology to cover for a fundamental stupidity: [living in urban environments] -- Helen Rumbelow * The Times *