Saskia Wheeler on neuroaesthetics, being wired for beauty, and closing the gap between intention and felt experience
Saskia Wheeler is a strategist and researcher working at the intersection of neuroscience and design, translating cognitive and sensory science into frameworks that guide how creative work is felt and experienced. For the past six years, she has worked with designers, agencies and hospitality brands to help them close the gap between the experience they intend to create and the one people actually feel. Saskia studied philosophy at Trinity College Dublin before completing a Master's in Neuroaesthetics at Goldsmiths, University of London. In this episode of Out of the Clouds, Saskia tells Anne about her upbringing in a creative London household (her mother was an art director who often had photographers living in the family home) and how she developed an early sensitivity to the way art and design bring atmosphere and meaning to everyday environments. Drawn to questions of consciousness and perception, she explains what led her from philosophy to neuroaesthetics, and why she felt she could not go further into questions of consciousness without first understanding the brain. Saskia and Anne discuss what neuroaesthetics actually is: the scientific study of how art, design, music and architecture measurably change our brains and bodies. Still a relatively young field, it draws on rigorous research to show that beauty and aesthetic experience are not decorative concerns but deeply embedded in how we evolved. The most surprising thing Saskia has learned in the field: just how deeply wired we are to respond to beauty. She also shares an insight that sits at the crossroads of philosophy and neuroscience and that has stayed with her since her studies: that lived experience is not simply made up of what we perceive in the present moment. It is co-created by our past memories, which don't merely inform the present but actually shape and in part create it. This is why two people can occupy the same space and have entirely different experiences of it, and why, Saskia reflects, understanding this has given her more compassion for herself and others. Saskia and Anne discuss the applications of neuroarchitecture and design, and what the research tells us about what makes spaces feel good to be in. Saskia identifies three things people value most: homeness (warmth and comfort), coherence (how well the space meets expectations and guides movement through it) and fascination (how much it surprises and interests). She also makes the case for touch as the most underestimated sense when it comes to comfort, linked to the neurochemical oxytocin and the experience of trust, and explains why this extends beyond physical contact with other people to the materials we come into contact with in our environments. Creativity is also an emerging area within neuroaesthetics, and Saskia speaks about it as an increasingly recognised fifth pillar of health and wellbeing, alongside exercise, sleep, nutrition and social connection. What she says here is worth sitting with: the benefits of creativity come from the expression and the doing, rather than the output. The inner critic is so often the biggest obstacle, because creativity has long been tied to being good at something rather than simply doing it. Anne and Saskia also share a practice: both are devoted morning pages writers. The conversation also touches on cognitive load and clutter (including research suggesting that disorganisation in our environments creates low-level vigilance even when we are not consciously aware of it), biophilic design, the science of lighting, and Anne's own plans for Le Trente, a social learning studio she is developing in Geneva. A rich exchange with a thinker who is quietly changing how the built world gets made. Happy listening! Selected links Connect with Saskia: Saskia Wheeler on Instagram: @neuro.aesthetic Website: https://www.saskiawheeler.co.uk/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saskiawheeler/ Visit our website: https://outoftheclouds.com/ Subscribe to Anne's newslett