SYNAESTHETIC AND HAPTIC EXPERIENCES FOR DESIGN EDUCATING. AN INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORK

This paper aims to underline the important roles that synaesthesia plays in education, especially in the field of educating designers, as a continuation of the studies conducted on the theme at Politecnico di Milano (in particular see: RICCÒ, 1999; CALABI, 2003). In the paper, there is an analysis of the synaesthetic syllabi from different countries, also organized by target group and disciplines, through the investigation of the structure and content of the courses, in order to provide some suggestions for improving synaesthetic education. The purpose is to summarise didactic activities concerning synaesthesia from all over the world, although mostly focused on undergraduates, through the analysis of educational direction, course content and the purpose of the syllabi, summing up education methods and broad frameworks. Some specific experiences in China (XIONG, DING, LONG, 2015) are also included. A case study, conducted in Nanjing University of Science and Technology, has been used as a trial of “Taste-Vision Synaesthesia”. This paper also suggests possible development trends for synaesthesia education.