In this seminar, Marcos Lutyens introduced recent explorations into perceptual technologies, multisensory systems, and the malleability of consciousness. Drawing from neuroscience, immersive media, and participatory art, the lecture traced how sensory frameworks—olfactory, haptic, auditory, and cognitive—can be reconsidered as dynamic interfaces between the individual and the environment. The work investigated how aromatic stimuli—delivered through evolving botanical, mineral, and synthetic scent compositions—could generate tactile, spatial, and emotional responses without physical contact. Participants were invited to map sensations across the body through gesture, breath, and improvised movement, treating scent as a haptic field rather than a purely udem event. Each session unfolded as both an experiment and a form of collective attunement, where heightened sensitivity became a shared language rather than a diagnostic category.
Lutyens shared research and project examples that investigate states of attention, collective attunement, and the ways in which artistic experimentation can open new channels for understanding human experience. The talk formed part of UC Santa Barbara’s Media Arts and Technology series, which brings together artists, engineers, and researchers working at the intersection of creativity and advanced technological inquiry.