SynestheticDesignLabEchoes

ECHOES

See our short film on our project, Echoes, below.

“Echoes” is an immersive environment designed to raise awareness and foster acceptance of neurodivergent spatial experiences, creating meaningful connections between art, technology, and human perception. For autistic individuals, sensory input profoundly shapes how they interact with the world, making physical environments critical to their well-being. The concept of disability is constructed not just at the site of the body but also in multiscalar architectural operations, in the spaces that mediate between us and our desires. Spatial access remains consequential to agency, empowerment, and self-possession. “Echoes” invites participants to engage their own bodies and senses to empathize with the emotional experiences of others. It is a safe space with responsive light and sound events that support self-regulation; a site of bodily and perceptual affirmation and awareness.

Short video presentation of Echoes Installation.

The work highlights the capacity of built environments and physical space to influence embodied, multi-sensory experiences, their potential for self-regulation, and their impact—particularly on neurodivergent and autistic individuals, but ultimately on everyone. The “Echoes” installation aims to improve experience quality for Neurodivergent (ND) and individuals on the Autism Spectrum (ASD) with a high level of sensory engagement.

Built from wood and cork and embedded with experimental sensors, the structure unfolds across two interconnected environments: a collective outer space where light pulses and gradually shift in intensity and color, and an intimate inner chamber with a shifting moonlight projection and sound that adapt in real time to the participant’s movements and breathing rhythms, enabling a form of self-regulation and individualized retreat. "Echoes" is more than an immersive artwork: it is an invitation to empathy. Through our bodies and senses, it allows us to glimpse and share the experiences of those who perceive the world differently, opening up spaces for understanding and mutual awareness.

Complementing the physical experience of the installation, the “Voices: Listeners in the Noise” film documentary shares first-hand narratives that reveal how urban soundscapes affect autistic individuals, raising awareness and inspiring more inclusive cities. The interviews’ transcripts result in a research project that advances knowledge on how ASD/ND individuals experience urban environments and how collaborations between neurodivergent / neurotypical individuals / communities and art / design / technology / healthcare professionals can create autism-friendly spaces. The information compiled by the “Echoes” exhibition visitors' voluntary and the interview participants' coding aims to offer insights for designers, planners, and policymakers, and contribute actionable research on this critical topic.

"Echoes" is developed by Severino Alfonso and Loukia Tsafoulia during the S+T+Arts (Science, Technology, and Arts) ReSilence EU residency funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101070278. Technology collaborators to the project are the Up2metric computer vision company and the Center for Research & Technology, Hellas (CERTH).

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