Somaesthetic Design

We work with a Somaesthetic Design research program. We draw upon the theories of Richard Shusterman on somaesthetics, joining the two words soma and aesthetics, where:

• soma is our  "living, purposive, sentient, perceptive body or bodily subjectivity”
• aesthetics is the process of training your sensory appreciation abilities, allowing for “an awakening from the mindless, joyless behaviours" of everyday life

Somaesthetic Design entails a qualitative shift from a predominantly symbolic, language-oriented stance, to an experiential, felt, aesthetic stance permeating the whole design and use cycle. 

Our research program is both an analytical project, but also, by necessity, a pragmatic study of methodologies to improve our functioning as designers and in our design work; as well as a practical study where we test those pragmatic methods on ourselves and our design work to render concrete experience.