Scent and sound of vision: expressing scent or sound as visual forms

This article describes three experiments on the possibility of expressing scent or sound into visual forms made by design engineering students. The hypothesis tested was that people are able to pick up patterns in the energy flow that the students transposed from one perceptual sense to another. In Exp. 1 subjects were given different scents and were asked to choose a sculpture designed according these scents. In Exp. 2 subjects were given different musical pieces and asked to match them with portable cassette players designed according to this music. Exp. 3 was identical to Exp. 2 but different music selections, similar to the ones in Exp. 2, were used. In all three experiments subjects were indeed able to perform the tasks above chance level. Results are discussed within the framework of the theory of direct perception of Gibson.