As a new exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt demonstrates, designing for senses beyond sight is more inclusive and more fun A wall wrapped in plush obsidian-black fur, scratch-and-sniff wallpaper perfumed with cherry, a minimalist color-coded bathroom, a speaker that?s a dead ringer for a satellite dish ?these aren?t novelty design. They?re hints to the house of the future, which is all about multi-sensory experiences.
The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, a new exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt design museum in New York City, is a survey of sensory design, or design that appeals to all of our senses: touch, smell, sound, taste, and vision. While most of the world is designed for sight, this exhibition acknowledges that humans process the world using multiple senses. The Senses invites museum-goers to run wild and explore using all of them.
Scott Rudd, Courtesy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Visitors interact with the Tactile Orchestra, created by Studio Roos Meerman and KunstLAB Arnhem, currently on view in "The Senses: Design Beyond Vision."

?Across all industries and disciplines, designers are avidly seeking ways to stimulate our sensory responses to solve problems of access and enrich our interactions with the world,? Cooper Hewitt Director Caroline Baumann said in a news release.
The Senses takes place a few floors up from Access + Ability, the Cooper Hewitt exhibition (rightfully) advocating for accessible design as a right...