Creative forms: booklets by the hospital senses collective

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Design
• Sensory Research
• Qualitative Methods

Background:

• Traditional research often relies on narrative, limiting exploration of spatial, sensory, and emotional concepts in healthcare.
• Embodied and sensory encounters within health/care settings are complex and challenging to articulate through text alone.

Purpose of the Study:

• To detail the creation of sensory booklets designed as prompts for exploring embodied encounters with healthcare environments.
• To advocate for multiplicity in exploring and presenting sensory-focused research.
• To critique the limitations of narrative forms in capturing spatial, sensory, and emotional experiences.

Main Methods:

• Development of a series of deliberately unfinished and exploratory booklets.
• Incorporation of design, form, and content to encourage embodied engagement and personal meaning-making.
• Creation of complementary audio descriptions, text, and images for online accessibility.

Main Results:

• Booklets facilitate attentiveness and embodied engagement, requiring careful user interaction.
• Qualitative insights demonstrate users creating their own meanings and exploring feelings about health/care environments.
• The multi-modal approach, including online resources, enhances accessibility and broadens engagement with sensory research.

Conclusions:

• Embracing creative, exploratory, and multi-modal approaches is critical for expanding research on complex sensory and emotional concepts.
• Sensory booklets offer a valuable, non-narrative method for investigating embodied experiences in healthcare.
• Multiplicity in research presentation, supported by accessible online resources, is essential for richer understanding.