Designing with all senses: Sensory materials in creative development

Creative professionals encountering kinetic sand for the very first time almost always report similar experiences: The inexplicably fluid yet malleable material trickles through their hands like a viscous liquid and can be pressed into a solid ball in the next moment. The quiet, almost crackling sound as the shape is crushed washes over the body like a gentle wave.

Within a few minutes, something astonishing usually happens: the pulse slows down. The stress of the day falls away, and suddenly – completely unexpectedly – ​​there is an increased chance that the long-awaited solution to a creative problem, one that you may have been brooding over all day, will appear in your mind.

Such experiences are neither coincidence nor esoteric. It is pure neurobiology

Designing with all senses: The comeback of comprehension in a digital world

In a world increasingly confined behind flat glass panes, sensory materials are experiencing a massive renaissance in creative development and learning. But why is "grasping" with all the senses suddenly so crucial again – not only for children, but especially for adults?

Flatlands or 3D world: The sensorimotor circuit

We live in an age of visual dominance. Whether it's Instagram, digital whiteboards, or AI-generated images, our creativity is primarily stimulated through sight. But the true purpose of our rich perception is to enable action and interaction with our environment.

For example, when we reach for an object, a complex interplay of visual, tactile, and kinesthetic sensory stimuli is necessary for successful grasping. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen assume that motor action and sensory processing are inextricably linked. The human brain uses redundant information sources—that is, information from different sensory channels about the same object—to interact purposefully with the environment.

Our brain functions like a highly complex statistician. In perception, it utilizes all available information sources as optimally as possible and processes them together. For example, when we knock on a door, the eye, ear, and hand simultaneously provide information about the exact location of the knock. The brain doesn't simply select one sense, but rather weighs the impressions according to their quality and reliability.

• If sensory data (e.g., from touch) is unreliable or noisy, it receives less weight in competition with other sources of information such as sight.
• Conversely, if the visual quality is reduced, the tactile impression dominates.

This optimal use of information minimizes overall noise in the brain and allows us to make incredibly precise estimates of our reality. However, if we limit ourselves to the screen (visually) during creative work, we deprive the brain of this highly interconnected, multisensory data processing.

The learning turbocharger: Why multisensory experiences boost the brain

These neuroscientific principles also explain why purely visual learning or working is often so tiring – and why the integration of haptics and acoustics ignites a real learning and creativity turbocharger.

Studies impressively demonstrate that people who use multisensory learning methods complete their learning sessions on average 25 percent faster than those who use only one method. Furthermore, research by Hüholdt revealed that the retention rate, which increases from approximately 20 percent with purely auditory learning, can rise to an incredible 95 percent when auditory, visual, reproductive, and person-centered learning methods are combined.

The Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig has impressively demonstrated this using the example of language learning:

• The brain finds it much easier to learn vocabulary when a word is associated with different sensory perceptions.
• Test subjects remembered terms best when they expressed them with gestures while learning and also saw them visually.
• When words were learned with gestures, movement regions in the brain were activated, while when words were accompanied by pictures, the visual centers were stimulated.

In practice, for example in vocational training in the skilled trades, it has been shown that trainees who use multisensory techniques develop their skills to a professional level about 30 percent faster. In other words, those who literally "grasp" a concept store it more deeply, quickly, and sustainably.

The language of materials and the art of feeling

To utilize these effects in practice, creative professionals, educators and curators now select their materials as carefully as a cook selects his spices.

Each material has its own language: wood provides resistance and organic warmth, clay requires strong proprioceptive muscle work, which grounds the nervous system

For a long time, art was primarily a visual experience. Now, however, artists and curators are creating works that invite the public to hear, smell, feel, and even taste.

• Haptics: Tactile stimuli offer the possibility of making art a physical experience by consciously choosing structures, materials, and surface qualities to evoke sensations. Some installations are even entered barefoot to perceive stimuli with the entire body.
• Olfactory perception: Smells are closely linked to memories; therefore, scents are used as emotional triggers and an independent form of expression to address the subconscious.
• Acoustics and taste: Sound installations create acoustic spaces for emotional depth, while performative dinner formats merge culinary arts with art and make them palatable.

This multisensory experience transcends the traditional boundaries between viewer and artwork, demanding active engagement. It is precisely this principle of active, haptic participation that makes materials like the aforementioned kinetic sand so valuable today for brainstorming sessions in agencies or as stress regulators for adults.

Case study: Crater or volcano? How haptics rewrites our worldview

A fascinating experiment by the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics proves that haptic experiences not only provide short-term relaxation but can also change our deepest cognitive assumptions .

Our perception is based not only on instantaneous sensory information, but also significantly on prior knowledge about the world, which is referred to as "a priori" knowledge in Bayesian decision theory . A classic example is the assumption that light in our world generally comes from above. The researchers presented test subjects with an ambiguous image: If one assumes the light comes from the upper left, the object looks like a crater (hole). If one rotates the image, it appears as a volcano (hill).

The researchers' intriguing question was: Can this firmly established, visual prior knowledge be changed through haptics?

• The test subjects completed an interactive training in which they not only saw the stimuli for about 1.5 hours, but also felt them with their fingers.
• The trick: During the training, the artificial world was rotated by 30 degrees, so that the felt impression didn't always match the visual perception. Some objects that previously appeared visually as volcanoes now felt like craters.
• The result was astonishing: This interactive training changed the subjects' perception. The "light from above" assumption shifted by an average of about 11 degrees, which is why some of the craters were suddenly seen purely visually as volcanoes.

This case study impressively demonstrates that fundamental presuppositions can be learned and adapted within a relatively short time through multisensory learning, based on statistical regularities in the environment. When we touch the world, we literally reshape our brains.

Modern spaces for multisensory development

If we take these findings seriously, we cannot stop at just the materials. The spaces in which we work, learn, and create must also change. While traditional table-based learning often still dominates in modern educational contexts in Germany, more and more schools are embracing movement-oriented learning.

The design of the environment is crucial:

• A flexible room concept allows for different learning positions, for example through the use of exercise balls or floor cushions instead of rigid seating arrangements.
• Ergonomic, colorful furniture, sound-enhancing elements and tactile surfaces stimulate the senses and support concentration.
• Even the climate plays a role: The ideal room temperature for optimal learning has been proven to be between 20 and 24 degrees Celsius, combined with effective ventilation.

When such an environment is combined with digital tools like interactive whiteboards or augmented reality (AR), it creates a state-of-the-art, multimodal learning environment. One example of this is the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, where medical students use AR to study human anatomy in a multisensory way.

Practical Deep Dive: The Phenomenon of "Kinetic Sand"

If there is one material that has made the leap from the nursery to the boards of tech companies and into therapeutic practices in recent years, it is kinetic sand.

Besides classic materials like clay or wood, kinetic sand fills a crucial gap. It consists of 98 percent fine quartz sand and two percent polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a viscoelastic silicone oil. This chemical compound ensures that the sand only adheres to itself, never dries out, and exhibits paradoxical properties: it is both fluid and solid.

Why is it so fascinating? Kinetic sand triggers the phenomenon of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) . Watching the sand flow slowly and viscously satisfies the eye, while the sense of touch plays with the unexpected texture. In creative development, it's used to overcome creative blocks. There's no pressure to produce a "finished product" (as in pottery). The journey is the destination. You build, you destroy, you let it flow – perfect training for dealing with impermanence and a catalyst for free thinking.

Target groups in focus: not a question of age

The assumption that sensory materials are only for kindergarten is one of the biggest misconceptions in modern pedagogy and the working world.

For children: The foundation of thinking

For children, sensory play isnota leisure activity, but intensive neurological work. Grasping precedes understanding. When a child digs in mud, they train their tactile discrimination skills. Kinetic sand for creative play thus fulfills a fundamental need of childhood learning.

Studies in developmental psychology have confirmed for years that children who come into contact with different textures early and in a variety of ways often show better fine motor skills, higher frustration tolerance and even a better spatial-mathematical understanding later on.

For adults: Shutting down the system

In adults, sensory stimulation serves a different, almost therapeutic purpose. Our daily lives are often characterized by chronic stress, constant availability, and an overload of high-speed information. Our nervous system is permanently in "fight-or-flight" mode.

Haptic materials act as switches here. They force us into the here and now. You can't scroll on your smartphone when your hands are covered in clay. Working with wood or kneading sand lowers cortisol levels. In an online community for neurodivergent adults (e.g., with ADHD or autism), kinetic sand is often described as an indispensable tool for stimming (self-stimulating behavior) and emotional regulation.

From practice: Case studies and expert opinions

That these insights have reached the mainstream of society is evident from a look at modern practices and companies.

Case study: Haptics in brainstorming

A medium-sized advertising agency in Munich remodeled its traditional meeting rooms two years ago. Instead of just whiteboards, there are now so-called "Tinker Trays" – trays filled with kinetic sand, wooden blocks, and flexible wires.

The result? The creative director reported significantly longer periods of concentration at an industry forum. "Before, people would stare at their phones during tedious meetings. Now they knead sand or build small wooden figures while they listen. The discussions are more lively, and the brainstorming process has become much more three-dimensional."

The consensus among experts

Occupational therapists, who work daily at the interface of body and mind, observe the trend toward alienation from the physical world with concern, but also recognize the potential of sensory interventions. A consensus in modern occupational therapy, based on the principles of sensory integration, states:

We are seeing an increasing number of people – both children and adults – whose tactile and proprioceptive systems are under-nourished. We call this a one-sided ‘sensory diet’. When we bring these people back into contact with materials like heavy clay, resistant wood, or flowing sand in therapy, we often observe an immediate regulation of the nervous system. Creativity can only arise where the brain feels safe and grounded. Understanding the material world is the most direct way to achieve this

The future is in our hands

The increasing digitalization of our everyday lives is an unstoppable process. Yet, paradoxically, this very process generates a physical counter-movement. Designing, working, and learning with all our senses is not a nostalgic step back into a pre-digital age. It is a biological necessity.

Sensory materials are anchor points for our nervous system. They promote neuroplasticity – the brain's ability to adapt and change. Because multimodal perception activates different brain regions, multisensory training leads to stronger neural connections.

Whether it's the modeling clay on the desk of a stressed copywriter, the tactile station-based learning activity in German class, or the walk-in, fragrant art installation in the museum: we only fully understand the world when our hands, our ears, and our eyes work in sync.

The next time you're stuck on a problem—whether it's a presentation, a text, or a life decision—do your brain a favor. Close your laptop. Knead clay, tear heavy paper, or let sand slip through your fingers. You'll be surprised at what your brain is capable of when it's finally allowed to "grasp" the world again.