Multimodal design imaging - a vehicle for crossing design boundaries

This paper proposes that all of our senses need to be employed in order to effectively imagine, communicate, and implement good design. A description is provided of the concept, rationale, goals, and structure of an inter-disciplinary one year project aimed at exploiting the benefits of this approach. A broad spectrum of researchers from the sciences and arts comprise the project group. Examples of the use of multi-sensory and multi-modal design implementations are considered. The possible future applications of multimodal design imaging are discussed and the practical difficulties experienced in bringing together the wide range of disciplines necessary are presented.