Somatic Design

A design approach that prioritizes bodily experience, physical sensation, and embodied perception as primary channels for interaction and understanding. Somatic design shifts the focus from purely cognitive or visual interfaces to ones that engage the whole body, drawing on proprioception, touch, movement, and kinesthetic awareness. In accessibility contexts, somatic approaches are particularly valuable for d/Deaf musicians and performers, enabling them to internalize musical concepts like rhythm and tempo through physical sensation—such as composing rhythms based on heartbeats—rather than relying on auditory perception alone.