Neuroaesthetics with Robyn Landau
Seeing emotion: The art and science of how environments shape us

How do you turn what your body feels into something you can see and share?

In this episode of Seeing Senses, Robyn Landau joins Sarah to explore the fast-developing field of neuroaesthetics. Robyn explains how our brains and bodies respond to everyday environments, why she and Katherine Templar Lewis founded Kinda to translate lab insights into real-world cultural experiences. Their studio-lab approach uses EEG, biosensors and self-report to create interactive works that help people learn about themselves. The conversation covers hands-on testing that visualises heart activity and skin conductance as colour, motion and shape, inclusive access, the “pub test” for science communication, and why building inner-sense literacy, interoception, matters for wellbeing. Their new experience Emergence has recently opened in New York.

//

Listen if you’re curious about:

• What neuroaesthetics is
• Visualising our inner response to sound
• Why Kinda Studios merges a creative studio with a neuroscience lab
• How physiological signals can be translated into live visual forms
• Interoception, flotation tanks, and learning to notice inner signals
• The “pub test”: sharing just enough science to pass on to a friend

//

Key themes & takeaways:

• Knowledge as agency: clear, shareable explanations help ideas travel
• Science-informed design: start with “how should someone feel,” then work backwards
• Real-world measurement: EEG and biosensors plus self-report outside strict lab settings
• Arousal and valence: mapping experiences to energy level and feeling tone
• Visualising physiology: colour, shape and motion as a common language for inner states
• Individual differences: similar inputs, different responses, different baselines
• Connection as outcome: to self, to others, to place
• Interoception for wellbeing: practise noticing inner signals, not only external stimuli

//

Guest:

Robyn Landau is a neuroaesthetics researcher, designer, and cultural entrepreneur advancing new interdisciplinary models connecting neuroscience with creative experiences. As the co-founder of Kinda Studios, the first women-led neuroscience studio and lab, she pioneers new ways to measure, design, and translate scientific insights into cultural experiences, expanding the impact of art, culture, and technology on human connection and wellbeing.

//

Bonus for multi-sensory thinkers:

Head to Seeing Senses on Substack for updates and extras.
You’ll find sense-hacking experiments and book recommendations from the guests. Become a paid subscriber to support the making of this podcast (with extra episodes and content).

//

Host:

Sarah Hyndman is a designer/researcher, author and speaker. You can book her for a talk or workshop about Multi-Sensory Thinking here via Type Tasting. Sarah is the founder of Type Tasting, curator of The Sensologists and author of the bestselling book Why Fonts Matter (Penguin/Virgin).

Seeing Senses. Where there’s more than meets the eye.

//

Theme music by AudioKraken.

#Neuroaesthetics #KindaStudios #Emergence #SeeingSensesPodcast #MultiSensoryThinking

Type & tattoos with Dan Rhatigan
Seeing words: Letraset, zines, maximalism and why fonts feel different

What happens when letterforms become part of your life story?

In this episode of Seeing Senses, typographer and educator Dan Rhatigan joins Sarah to talk about how letters move from page to body, from analogue to digital and from work to play. Dan brings a joyous sense of curiosity to the craft of type. He shares how making comic books as a teenager set him on the path to typography, how Letraset taught him to trust his eyes, and how his tattoos have become a living archive of type history.

Dan reflects on his work at type foundry Monotype, his zine projects and his fascination with the tactile side of design. He shares how hands-on making changes how we see, think and feel. Why a little imperfection can bring designs (and designers) back to life.

//

Listen if you’re curious about:

• How a love of comic books led to a career in typography
• What Letraset taught a generation of designers about precision and play
• How physical, hands-on processes change creative decision-making
• What it’s like to manage one of the world’s largest font libraries
• How type design trends reflect the mood of the moment
• Why Dan’s tattoos make him unforgettable in summer

//

Key themes & takeaways:

• Maximalism as joy: Type is for play, not perfection
• Zines and community: DIY publishing as sensory storytelling
• Creative constraint: Limited tools lead to unexpected ideas
• Flow through physicality: Movement and making reignite creativity
• Analog memory: Letraset and letterpress evoke embodied learning
• Type tattoos: A living archive of letterforms and meaning
• Cyclical trends: Why soft, emotional typefaces return in uncertain times
• Font choice as power: Every visual decision changes how words feel

Head to Seeing Senses on Substack for visual references and tattoo photos.

//

Guest:

Dan Rhatigan is the Senior Creative Foundry Director at Monotype. He is a renowned typographer with eclectic experience as a typesetter, graphic designer, typeface designer, and educator. He went from an MA at the University of Reading to senior roles at Monotype, Adobe Fonts, Type Network, and The Type Founders. He publishes his own typefaces and collaborations through Bijou Type, and a long-running zine, Pink Mince.

//

Bonus for multi-sensory thinkers:

Head to Seeing Senses on Substack for updates and extras.
You’ll find sense-hacking experiments and book recommendations from the guests. Become a paid subscriber to support the making of this podcast.

//

Host:

Sarah Hyndman is a designer/researcher, author and speaker. You can book her for a Seeing Senses talk, workshop or event. Sarah is the founder of Type Tasting, curator of The Sensologists and author of the bestselling book Why Fonts Matter (Penguin/Virgin).

Seeing Senses. Where there’s more than meets the eye.

//

Theme music by AudioKraken. Typeface Magnet, Inga Plönnigs.

#Typography #Tattoos #TypeDesign #SeeingSensesPodcast #MultiSensoryThinking

Guest hosts theatre students Alayna & Zoe
Majoring in theatre: Anticipation, connection and the breath before the curtain rises

What does the moment right before a show begins feel like?

In this episode of Seeing Senses, Sarah hands the mic to two guest hosts: University of Georgia theatre majors Alayna Young and Zoe Davidson. Together, they explore the charged, sensory-rich seconds before a performance starts, both from backstage in the wings and from the velvet seats of the audience.

From the click of a mic wire behind the ear to the dimming of the house lights, Alayna and Zoe reveal how these details shape emotion, memory, and connection. They discover that performers and audience members share many of the same feelings (anticipation, suspense, excitement) but experience them in subtly different ways.

//

Listen if you’re curious about:

• How senses heighten anticipation before a show
• Why onstage vulnerability can outweigh perfection
• Sensory overlap between audience and performer
• How small details spark big emotions
• Why the “breath before it begins” connects us all

//

Key themes & takeaways:

• Anticipation is full-body: heartbeats, breath and room buzz align
• Backstage items like zippers or headset mics spark emotional shifts
• Audience and performers share emotional arcs before the show starts
• Sensory cues trigger emotion and anchor memories
• The most powerful theatre moments are often unplanned and subtle
• Vulnerability builds connection: showing your human side draws people in

//

Guests:

Alayna Young is a fourth-year theatre student exploring the relationship between performance and the senses. She’s passionate about the transformative potential of stepping into another character and how sensory detail deepens that transformation. Zoe Davidson is a third-year theatre student fascinated by the invisible threads between the stage and the audience. She’s been performing since childhood and sees theatre as a place for honest, human connection.

Thank you to Sara Gray from AIFS.

//

Bonus for multi-sensory thinkers:

Head to Seeing Senses on Substack for updates and extras.
You’ll find sense-hacking experiments and book recommendations from the guests. Become a paid subscriber to support the making of this podcast (with extra episodes and content).

//

Host:

Sarah Hyndman is a designer/researcher, author and speaker. You can book her for a talk or workshop about Multi-Sensory Thinking here via Type Tasting. Sarah is the founder of Type Tasting, curator of The Sensologists and author of the bestselling book Why Fonts Matter (Penguin/Virgin).

Seeing Senses. Where there’s more than meets the eye.

//

Theme music by AudioKraken.

#MultisensoryDesign #Theatre #Performance #SeeingSensesPodcast #MultiSensoryThinking #Podcast