Sensory Engagement and the Haptic is all about understanding the relationship between human beings and our environment. Sensory Processing relates to the way, in which our bodies react to sensory information.












Several efforts to 'break out of the box' have been already been followed through, like for example the projection of websites on walls in order to reach monitor-free interaction.

As Paola Antonelli, an Italian author and curator at Moma, stressed (2008, p.9) in her essay 'Digital by Design', designers “learned to control their touch and to wear technology instead of letting technology wear them”.

Artists like Theo Watson and Yujin Yun have both created interactive magazines, which engage with screen and camera. This is a typical example of two different mediums blending together.













'Body Paint' created in 2009 by Memo Akten is an visual instrument allowing its users to stand in front of a virtual canvas with their body and throw colour on the canvas by gestures and movements. The aim is to explore expressive ways of performing images and color.













'Gaze Controlled Flying' is a project, where a drone is navigated, not by a joystick, but purely by using eye information. This is only possible thanks to the relationship between our body and the world.













In general, the relationship between information and the human body has come to the fore in the past few years.

Reactive environments have been designed in the past decades, like for example the 'Rain Room' in the Barbican Centre in London in 2012/13. It was raining on every inch of this massive room, except on the spot, where people were standing on. In other terms, the people did not get wet, although they were standing in the rain thanks to a sensor above their head, which sent a signal to stop pouring water.










Another example for environments reacting to human action is “Piano Stairs” by The Fun Theory. Music was played, while people walked on the steps of stairs of a tube station, which sounded exactly like piano playing.













As emphasized by Lev Manovich, 'the spectator has to work, speak, in order to see' (2001, p.109). By that, Manovich wants to underline the fact, that interaction is only possible if the receiver is ready to engage.

Kenya Hara, the director of MUJI, is convinced that the most powerful communication is not to 'catch the audience’s eye with an arresting image, but having the image permeate the five senses' (2007, p.126). Cognitive science has proven in recent years, that the sensitive human senses have become crucial in the forefront of technology.

Active Objects also become more and more common nowadays. Tom Jenkins interactive speaker, created in 2004, enables its user to say something into the speaker, shake it and having the speaker repeat your words. The object literally has the ability to change a sound into a digital piece of information.

A crucial discussion in design is how to keep a healthy human computer balance. The relationship between humans and machines has always been a fierce subject. The intention of an exhibition called 'Human Error' in Manchester in 2010 was to create an environment that fully involved its audience, meaning the visitors are invited to use analogue versions of printers, photo booths and other machines, that we use daily. The goal is to underline human error and to highlight the essential role that technology has nowadays.

Being a writer, designer, editor and publisher, Jessica Helfland brought up a discussions and debates in graphic design. In her essay 'Dematerialization of screen space' of 2011, Jessica Helfland states that 'the computer is our connection to the world' and that we are 'its most loyal subjects', but also its prisoners.