The Synesthetic Research and Design Lab (SR&DL) at Thomas Jefferson University proposes a multi‑year, interdisciplinary research agenda situated at the intersection of the arts, health, architecture, and interactive technology. The project investigates embodied self‑regulation in adolescents with profound autism through the design, implementation, and study of interactive, art‑based therapeutic environments that integrate dynamic light, sound, movement, and spatial responsiveness.

 

This research addresses a persistent and well-documented gap in arts and health scholarship. While autism research has increased significantly over the past two decades, empirical studies overwhelmingly focus on children or individuals with Level 1, often privileging verbal communication, standardized assessments, and generalized behavioral outcomes. Adolescents with profound autism—particularly those who are nonverbal, have high support needs, and express themselves primarily through embodied and sensory means—remain systematically underrepresented in both research and design practice. As a result, there is a lack of appropriate research methodologies, limited evidence‑based design guidance, and few scalable therapeutic models to address self‑regulation for this population.

 

Building on SR&DL’s prior practice‑based and research‑driven projects—most notably Echoes, Voices, and Echoes of Light—this project advances translational arts research by developing, testing, and standardizing embodied, interactive therapeutic environments. These environments treat architecture and art not as passive backdrops, but as active participants in self‑regulation processes. By centering bodily interaction, sensory modulation, and environmental feedback as primary mechanisms of engagement, the project reframes how regulation can be understood, measured, and supported for adolescents with profound autism.

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At its core, the research recognizes that self‑regulation for this population is rarely expressed through language or conventional behavioral metrics. Instead, regulation emerges through movement, posture, rhythm, withdrawal, repetition, proximity, sensory seeking or avoidance, and interaction with environmental affordances. This project, therefore, emphasizes methodological innovation, ethical responsibility, and interdisciplinary collaboration among architects, artists, engineers, clinicians, educators, and autism researchers to develop research tools and therapeutic systems that are responsive to individual variability while remaining scientifically rigorous.