New Industrial PhD of Elisava Research and Domestic Data Streamers

What happens in our brain activity when we are exposed to immersive environments? How does our nervous system respond to complex aesthetic stimuli? How do sensory narratives affect our emotions, cognition, and behavior?

At ELISAVA Research – Decoding Well-being and Care Through Design, we conduct research to generate a real impact on society. In the framework of ongoing collaboration with Domestic Data Streamers, we started a joint research, led by María Araya León and Axel Gasulla, in a new challenge through an Industrial PhD. A project in which the doctorate student Andrea Méndez Oliver will explore these issues from neuroesthetics, psychology, and cognitive sciences, analyzing how immersive experiences and artistic expressions affect the way we interact with the environment.

Neuroesthetics emerges as a key discipline to understand the role of environmental perception and aesthetic experience in emotional regulation, overall well-being and behavior. In this context, immersive experiences are not limited to surrounding the individual, but act as transformative stimuli capable of generating emotions of varying intensity. Likewise, sensory narratives transcend the verbal tale to incorporate perceptual dimensions that are breathed, touched and lived, transforming into powerful multisensorial activation channels that can significantly influence the cognitive, affective and somatic processes.

At ELISAVA, we are committed to a care approach, understanding the narratives in immersive experiences as a care opportunity to provide well-being at different levels. This doctoral thesis will be co-directed by Maria Araya, PhD, and Javier Peña, PhD.

In addition, thanks to the AGAUR grant from Generalitat de Catalunya, in collaboration with the Universitat de Vic and the experimental sciences, technology and digital care program, we take a key step in the exploration of the intersection between art, technology and human consciousness.