Smell, taste and touch art at Tate Britain thanks to creative agency Flying Object

“We want to engage the senses to get people thinking about art in different and more intense ways,” says Tom Pursey, founder of Flying Object, the agency behind Tate Sensorium, an upcoming exhibition at Tate Britain that aims to change the way visitors interact with art through the use of a multi-sensory installation built around key works from the gallery's collection.

The team has enlisted a panel of sensory specialists and scientists, including a binaural audio recordist, an experimental psychologist and a “purveyor of olfactory adventures” to help bring the exhibition to life, using technology like touchless haptics, which allows visitors to touch distinctly shaped ultrasound waves in the air. “Our biggest challenge is to make sure we don't get in the way of the art,” says Pursey. “We could easily build a big theatrical experience that wows people briefly – but that's not the goal. The goal is to connect people with art."

We’ve recently observed the rise of interactive exhibitions and museums going beyond the physical, and if you are to believe Pursey, sensory exhibitions are here to stay: “I think there are two parts to this trend. One is to create immersive experiences within museums that use the senses to explore the subject. Another is for museums to be more aware of how the senses affect perception and react accordingly in more subtle ways. That could be about revising how they make audio guides, or by matching what’s available in the cafe with what’s on in the exhibition room."