Multisensory Design: HK Memories

Cheryl Wong

See it On Campus: Level 2

We experience the world through sensations.
Therefore, our memories are sensorial.

How are memories recalled? How might one communicate specific memories? What can we do with memories?

This project is an investigation in memory communication and Multisensory Design, exploring the possibilities of design beyond the visuals. Through multiple months of research and experiments, this body of exploration tries to recreate the Hong Kong experience in Vancouver; an experiment on placemaking at a distance.

Working with personal memories as content narratives, this project is divided into multiple research series that touches upon different senses through different ways of making; the goal is to reflect and express lived experiences as authentically as possible.

As we live through the world through sensations, this body of sensory research is a curiosity on communication and experience design, challenging the boundaries of context and emphasizing the iterative creative process over execution outcomes.

Sight + Touch

Visual Culture and Tactile Material of the Everyday.

Geography and Displacement.

Red-White-Blue Series.

An exploration using the tactile material of the iconic Red-White-Blue bag originated from Hong Kong. The geographic pattern/ weaving aims to communicate the dense population and busy city life, as well as drawing connections to packing goods into this durable bag when traveling.

Hearing

Sounds of Life and Vibrance.

A Busy City Life.

The Transit Journey Series.

An illustration of “A-Day-In-The-Life” through sounds of the train system (MTR). These sounds are familiar to many generations of citizens as most of the population takes transit in their daily lives.

Smell

Scent of Tradition and Home.

Relics of Generational Knowledge.

Incense Series.

Video works that explore communication through scent, a time-based medium. Relating the burning of incense and its ashes to lived experience and memories in a poetic way; ashes are the relics of the once present incense stick, just like our memories are what lives on from our past experience and existence.

Immersive Experience

A Fluid Space Where Narratives Meet and Live in Harmony.

Iterative Installation Process.

Installation #1, March 2023.

While this project produced multiple outcomes consisting many experimental series, the form of an installation explores how might pieces come together to create one immersive experience. Each series narrates different aspects of Hong Kong through different senses, so the challenge is to create a coherent spatial narrative while still preserving the essence of each series.

This particular installation curation consists:
RWB Weaving
Incense Series (incense with video projection)
White Flower Oil (scent)
Transit Journey (sound)
Father’s Music Playlist (sound)
Jar of Memory (2 glass jars)
Writing

Illustrating a collection of portraits and narratives
People swinging by, arriving and departing
Places constructing and deconstructing
Time and memory as the only constants

Continuously traveling through time
Packing experience as we situate in different spaces
Gifting as love, sharing as kindness
Finding home through chaos and complexity

Effortlessly burning our own incense
Desperately holding onto its ashes
Fumes vanishing quietly, ashes falling as relics
Against all wind and rain, to withstand the test of time

Wandering through lively streets of happenings
Finding our tunes and rhythms
Signified by the familiarity of every footprint
Living in orchestrations of generational harmonies

Preserving our time and experience
Best wishes as they live beyond our existence
Evidence of our presences and identities
Passing stories and traditions beyond our grandchildren

Positioning in a capsule of echos, frozen in time
To be reminded of our origin and consciousness
We experience the world through sensations
Therefore our memories are sensorial

記敘影像與描述
人來人往聚和散
地標建立和解構
但只有時間和記憶是永恆

不斷在時間中穿梭
在各地累積經驗
以禮為愛，共享為善
在混亂之中尋找家鄉

緩緩燃燒起香
拚命保存香灰
煙悄悄地溜走，剩下的只有灰
不懼風雨，對抗時間考驗

在熱鬧街道上遊蕩
找尋我們的曲調和節奏
用熟識的腳印為指引
活在多代人的編曲中

保存時間和經驗
送上美麗的祝福
這種身份的見證
將故事和文化傳下去

這刻在時間錦囊中
喚醒我們的根源和心情
憑知覺去體驗世界
因此記憶是感官的