PerceptionLab

After finishing the IMPACT 1-Study last year, now we conclude the second part IMPACT 2. Here students from the Mastercourse, supervised by Prof. Hofmann, Prof. Nether and Dr. Pilgram evaluated if the acoustic perception is influenced by visual factors. The experiment take place in the ‘Wellenfeldsyntheseraum’ of the Musikhochschule Detmold, in cooperation with Prof. Kob who was also supporting the researchgroup in content questions.

The room was designed in two atmospheres, one in a warm and soft looking way, the other one in a cold and hard looking way. The probands were asked to write down their perception of a taped record in questionairs. Additionally they use the Biofeedbaack System.

Punctual for the annual fall-symposium of the PerceptionLab the first book of the publication-series, which will deal with the main topics of the symposia, released. For the  first book, published by Fink, Marco Hemmerling collected articles from speakers of the symposium 2010, like Daan Roosegarde, Mischa Kuball and Markus Schäfer, as well as other known specialists.

Detmold (Heide Teschner) „A sensation is measurable, atmosphere is not“, said the interior architect Eva Filter. 120 visitors were on the discovery of emotional space-atmospheres on Friday, the 21st of october at 4. symposium from the PerceptionLab „Mensch, Raum und Atmosphäre“. 
Five speakers were talking about space-atmospheres from very different viewpoints: architectural theory, philosophical, the viewpoint of a sketching architect, from an artist and an interior designer.
Wolfgang Meisenheimer, the head of the Werkbundakademie, declared that atmosphere can’t only be described rationally, “ When we talk about the architectural space, we talk about an experience space“. Perception always depend on the person itself and it’s impossible to have an objective perception of atmosphere.
Kathrin Busch, professor for cultural theory at the University of fine arts in Berlin, wanted the designers to withdraw. Architect Günther Hofmann advised them to allow inconsistencies, „This makes a sketching more atmospherical than every photo“ and added “I think that we don’t perceive angels as atmospheric.“
In a suprisingly literatural way the interior designer Jens Wendland was talking about atmosphere and the artist Jürgen Albrecht from Hamburg presented his impressive light-atmospherical works. „Designers are seekers“, Wendland said.
„To learn more about the effects of spaces the students have to look at them, to feel them and to perceive them – this can’t only be taught“ summarized professor Harald Gräßer the discussion. 

IMPACT 1 Study

At the moment, the biggest research project of the PerceptionLab is IMPACT – a study about the impact fo space. It starts with a pretest in the "Umweltpsychologie" Seminar. The theme was the impact of colored light on the emotional state. The pretest was used to concretize the question and the experimental setup.

In the Masterprogram the students  did the data ascertainment in the wintersemester 2010/11. Together with questionairs and observation they used the newly acquired Biofeedbacksystem. By using more than only one methods the results can be compared and empiric established data can be generated. 

This is an example for the concern of the mainfocus to introduce research to the students in a very practical way.