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Immersive Audio Podcast Episode 41 – Charles Spence (University of Oxford)

Summary

In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel is joined by world-famous experimental psychologist and Professor at the University of Oxford – Charles Spence via Zoom from Oxford, UK.

Professor Charles Spence is a world-famous experimental psychologist with a specialization in neuroscience-inspired multisensory design. He has worked with many of the world’s largest companies across the globe since establishing the Crossmodal Research Laboratory (CRL) at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University in 1997. Prof. Spence has published over 900 academic articles and edited or authored, 15 books including, in 2014, the Prose prize-winning “The perfect meal”, and the international bestseller “Gastrophysics: The new science of eating” (2017; Penguin Viking) – winner of the 2019 Le Grand Prix de la Culture Gastronomique from Académie Internationale de la Gastronomie.

In this episode, Charles opens up about the world of multisensory design focusing on how sound affects our perception of taste and much more.

Listen to Podcast

Charles Spence Extended Bio

Much of Prof. Spence’s work focuses on the design of enhanced multisensory food and drink experiences, through collaborations with chefs, baristas, mixologists, chocolatiers, perfumers, and the food and beverage, and flavour and fragrance industries. Prof. Spence has worked extensively in the world of multisensory experiential wine and has also worked extensively on the question of how technology will transform our dining/drinking experiences in the future.

The research conducted at the Crossmodal Research Laboratory in Oxford has garnered widespread media attention across the globe, including in The Economist (February 4-10th, 2012, p. 74), and The Financial Times (3rd June, 2013, p. 14; http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6bc0fa04-c175-11e2-9767-00144feab7de.html#axzz2VEbNyXiR) and has been profiled in The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/02/accounting-for-taste). Over the last decade alone, Prof. Spence and the CRL have been featured in more than 3,000 newspaper articles, radio interviews, and television programs.

Prof. Spence frequently delivers consumer neuroscience lectures and courses to global companies, and business schools and schools of business administration, such as at Los Andes, Rosario University, and Javariana University in Colombia, the Saïd Business School, Oxford, and the Singapore Business School.

Prof. Spence has been awarded numerous national and international prizes for scientific excellence, including the 10th Experimental Psychology Society Prize, the British Psychology Society: Cognitive Section Award, the Paul Bertelson Award, recognizing him as the young European Cognitive Psychologist of the Year, and, the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany): ‘in recognition of past accomplishments in research and teaching’. In 2008, together with Dr. Max Zampini, he was awarded the 2008 IG Nobel prize for nutrition for his work on ‘the sonic crisp’

Show Notes

Charles Spence – Sensploration (FoST 2016) – https://vimeo.com/170509976

Accounting for Taste How packaging can make food more flavorful – http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/02/accounting-for-taste

“The Perfect Meal” | Talks at Google – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgUVjKsP_wc

Heston Blumenthal – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heston_Blumenthal

Fat Duck – https://thefatduck.co.uk/

ASMR – https://www.1618digital.com/immersive-audio-podcast-episode-11-asmr-the-feeling-of-sound

AEG Tasteology – http://www.aeg.co.uk/taste/inspiration/tasteology/

Neurocuisine, The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/video/2016/may/23/neuro-cuisine-exploring-the-science-of-flavour-video

Multisensory Experience and Coffee – Reco Symposium – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVKabsudi1I

Unexpected connections – pleasure and pain: Charles Spence at TEDx UHasselt – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVt-QrNFZso

Entomophagy in our world, TEDx City University London – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQEX-kMpz-4

Spence LSE Gastrophysics talk – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB_B9hfsNXI

Spence Going Underground TV – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56e5UZJreg0

For multisensory packaging video, see – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV3SRKFpEsg

Nuffield Triannual Food Conference – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePguEqCJ7Ks

Taste of General Mills Podcast, Making food your five senses will love – http://www.blog.generalmills.com/2016/09/podcast-making-food-your-five-senses-will-love/

Chef Jozef Youssef – http://kitchen-theory.com/staff-member/jozef-youssef/

Charles Spence Book “Gastro Physics” – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gastrophysics-Science-Eating-Charles-Spence/dp/0241977746/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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Credits

This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Michelle Chan with the help of Emma Rees and included music by Knobs Bergamo.

ASMR – The Feeling Of Sound

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, more commonly known as ASMR, is one of the most curious phenomenons to grace the science of sound whilst maintaining a vast audience all across the globe. Through the power of the internet and word of mouth, more and more people are actively looking for videos of people scratching microphones, tapping fingernails and softly whispering into extremely sensitive mics, giving its listeners a sensory response like no other.

Sometimes described as Brain Tingles, Brain Massages and Brain Orgasms, listening to different triggers results in a small euphoric sensation for those that experience ASMR. The epicentre of the tingles and shivers, with the effects travelling down the shoulders and back (and, in some cases, to limbs), gives a sense of relaxation and peacefulness which some researchers believe may have positive effects on health and wellbeing. Not everyone responds to the same triggers, and some don’t have the response at all.

This is theorised to be linked to the perceptions of closeness and elements of care associated with certain sounds and sensations, which we as humans react to in the same way a child reacts to being held close to their mother, her hand running through their hair with comfort. It makes us feel safe and secure, and less troubled by the world around us because we’ve shut it out to focus our attention on these sensory triggers. So for someone looking for a sense of relationship and being cared for, ASMR offers a form of respite from the lack of those feelings, even if only in the short-term. One only has to search ASMR into Google or YouTube to find a plethora of channels and videos made by ASMRtists, freely accessible for the public to use to their heart’s content.

From what is to be considered the very first ASMR video uploaded by WhisperingLife in 2009 to new content being created every week, videos have evolved and changed to become more and more immersive with role-play and effects, yet they still hold true to their initial intended purpose of audible stimulation. The production of these videos can be complex – props, costumes, camera and SFX being elements in some examples – but in its simplest form, they only require the soft satisfying sounds and a binaural microphone to be effective. This acts to split the audio recorded into stereo sound through your headphones – one microphone for each ear that gives the illusion of closeness and proximity as the source of sound moves around you in a 3D space.

Scientifically speaking, there a is very finite amount of research materials on the subject – the term ASMR was only recently coined in 2010 by Jennifer Allen, with the most prolific of research conducted by the ASMR University, run by Dr Craig Richard. But since its rising popularity online, more and more material is being produced in the aid of the scientific exploration of ASMR. Worldwide surveys, academic papers/pieces and books are just some of the examples of media exploring new angles from biological to social influence to the deconstruction and study of each individual aspect that comes together to create the trigger.

To find out more about ASMR with interviews from a variety of experts and creators, listen to our Immersive Audio Podcast episode about ASMR on iTunes and Soundcloud!