Professor Charles Spence, will be visiting School of Art and Design on December 1, 2011. He will give a brief presentation about recent multisensory research being done at Oxford University in room 4319 at 10:00–12:00.

This should be interesting for anyone who interested in sensory design, user experience and perception of designed objects!  After the presentation students and staff have a possibility to ask questions and opportunity to discuss their own research objectives and problems with him.

Spence is one of the keynote speakers at Lohaspack-seminar on 30.11.2011 at Design Factory. (http://www.ptr.fi/lohaspack/) This seminar is also open to public, but requires registration before November 23, .2011.

Biography – Professor Charles Spence

Professor Charles Spence is the head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University (http://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/xmodal/default.htm). He is interested in how people perceive the world around them. In particular, how our brains manage to process the information from each of our different senses (such as smell, taste, sight, hearing, and touch) to form the extraordinarily rich multisensory experiences that fill our daily lives. His research focuses on how a better understanding of the human mind will lead to the better design of multisensory foods, products, packaging, interfaces, and environments in the future. His research calls for a radical new way of examining and understanding the senses that has major implications for the way in which we design everything from household products to mobile phones, and from the food we eat to the places in which we shop, work and live. His research has major implications for multisensory branding.  He is currently working on problems associated with the design of foods that maximally stimulate the senses, and with the design of multisensory branding and packaging. He has also worked extensively on the effect of the indoor environment on mood, well-being, shopping behaviour, and performance.

Charles has acted as a consultant for a number of multinational companies advising on various aspects of multisensory design, packaging, and branding over the past decade, including Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, BMW, ICI, McDonalds, Quest, Firmenich, Britvic, Neurosense, Baiersdorf, Nestle, SSL International, VF Corporation, Mars, Starbucks, Elopak, Faraday Packaging, Takasago, Reastaurant Denis Martin, and The Fat Duck restaurant.

Charles has published more than 400 articles in top-flight scientific journals. Charles has been awarded the 10th Experimental Psychology Society Prize, the British Psychology Society: Cognitive Section Award, the Paul Bertelson Award, recognizing him as the young European Cognitive Psychologist of the Year, and, most recently, the prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany.