Exploring the Intersection of Human Emotions and Space Experience

Pranav Mistry¹ and Diya Gupta²

Abstract

A multisensory experience involves mind and body with intentionally designed environments which also engage all five senses. Spatial elements impact human psychology, their well-being and productivity. To assess the positive relationship between space and emotions, a survey of 25 people (18-40 years old) was conducted in 3 stages. The first stage was evaluating their perception by analysing how a human interprets their surroundings. Individuals described smell as their preferred sense despite sight being the dominant one. It also stated past memories influence present spatial experience and how a human brain forms an episodic memory every time an emotion is triggered. On listening to low musical notes depicting sadness, users felt relaxed supporting Russell’s affect theory. In the second stage of validating the role of senses, a user was asked to describe their journey of adapting to a sensorial space. As per Concepts, Processes and Principles (CPP) & Critical Decision Method (CDM), the findings challenge the impact of dominance of sight revealing it is the fastest but least accurate senses to align with human moods. In their journey, the probability of critical error of miscalculated stimulus triggering undesired emotions was surfaced by SHERPA method. In the last stage, cognitive workload for being productive was measured using NASA TLX. Users’ mental workload and factors affected it were analysed. In today’s world, with busy and complicated lives, innovative smart technology gives a new direction to a multisensory environment. In conclusion, this study proposes the integration of Emotion IoT to be used to bridge the gap in empathetic interaction and the field of spatial design using human senses.

¹Masters in Engineering Management, Trine University, Angola, Indiana, US.
²Dept. of Interaction Design, Karnavati University, Gujarat, India.
¹mistrypranav1996@gmail.com