Our bodies bare memories of ancient experiences. They stem from the beginnings of humanity and they have created sensory-motor patterns, which influence our interaction and perception of the built environment.

Many sensory-motor metaphors which humans use in their ways of communication – spoken, non-verbal, art, dance, architecture – emerged from those primary experiences, for example:

Physical experience: Standing, being upright, climbing. Metaphor: “Happy is up” – “Being up”, “I am feeling down”, “On top of the world”, “Climbing the corporate ladder”, “Rise to the top”, “Uplifting”,

Physical experience: Being born. Metaphor: “Beginnings are births” – “Idea was born”, “The project is in its infancy”, “The idea was conceived”, “The initiative is going through growing pains”,

Physical experience: Visual perception. Metaphor: “Knowing is to see” – “I see what you mean”, “The event is eye-opening”, “The research illuminated the problem”, “The fog of confusion lifted”,

Physical experience: Gathering around. Metaphor: “Unity is gathering” – “the common vision crystalized”, “the team is on the same page”, “improving the team’s alignment”, “cohesion is created by interweaving various elements”,

Physical experience: Proximity. Metaphor: “Likeness is closeness” – “they are close friends”, “they gravitate towards each others”, “the gaps between people narrowed”,

We explore those experiences and corresponding sensory-motor metaphors and translate them to movement and spatial expressions.

Programme:

PART 1: Experimentation. During the event’s first part, we open up to chosen primary experiences and depict them through dance, movement, and choreography. In the next step, we interpret choreography into form, translating it into spatial installations.

PART 2: Reflection. During the second part, we reflect on the spatial qualities we have created: height, length, weight, pattern, shape. Can architectural elements which by the metaphorical way align with human experience become a part of enrichment, salutogenesis, meaningfulness, emotional regulation, sensory integration? Can they influence the human experience in a positive way?

Do any of them, apart from the metaphor they embody, represent properties which show up in research in environmental psychology or neuroarchitecture? Like shelter, prospect, mystery, complexity, pattern, light, spaciousness or natural elements?

We describe and map the experience and emotions connected to created spatial elements.

The event refers to an article by Lukasz Krupinski and Ulrika Blåeld Wedin: and to Davide Ruzzon’s book “Tuning architecture with humans” in which he explains the “neuro-phenomenological knots. He writes “…any spatial configuration, whether natural or artificial, will have those meanings embedded within its form. Beyond Gibsonian natural affordances, early humans began to recognize and exploit the metaphorical configurations of their primordial settings”. “Buildings often follow the path of a ritual which that is capable of first reviving and then establishing collective feelings…”

When and where:

Date: March 22, 2025

Time: TBD

It is a hybrid event – first part takes place live in Stockholm, second part takes place in Stockholm with possibility to join online.

Stay tuned! More details to come!

Ulrika, Camilla, Lukasz