In recent years, digital technology has encouraged us to expand our environmental space. Therefore, tools are required to predict what kind of social and cultural roles will be demanded of environmental spaces in the future, in accordance with the dynamically changing times. This paper proposes the empirical methodology, a new observation method that would serve the redefinition of the tangible and the intangible environment for framing the future environment. This methodology adapts the formation process of experience based on “truth, goodness, and beauty” to the knowledge of artifact creation, which I call tangible learning. It observes the connection between emotion, feeling, and the image generated by the experience starting from the haptic sensory. It utilizes tactile features that generate images based on emotional and visual ideas that allow the user to feel emotional and architectural atmospheres. Through this proposal methodology, we can understand the process of embodied cognition created from haptic senses. Tangible learning in this study starts from considering the first impression of clay as one example of a medium. Then, participants shape clay with their hands to show the sensations associated with a couple of words that can recall feelings from sensory memory and images. In the middle of those processes, participants repeatedly confirmed each fitness of experience through three questions related to “truth, goodness, and beauty” with clay moldings. Through the methodology of tangible learning, I believe it is possible to connect memories from the past with present sensations, then predict the future, which will change dynamically. This paper contributes to the design of the ‘aura’ of the material object in an emotional and architectural atmosphere allowing creators to observe the human experience of the material object as an atmospheric object. Furthermore, I argue that the power of images brought about by the sense of playfulness enriches life and leads to well-being based on examples observed through tangible learning.
Suehye Lee is originally from South Korea, currently based in Japan. As a researcher for a Japanese company, a mother company of TOYOTA automobile group, Lee is committed to reinforcing creating environmental space for the future. Her approach to research is holistic with philosophy, aesthetics, psychology, cognitive science, design, and art are combined. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in Japan under Kawamoto Hideo, a representative philosopher of Autopoiesis theory. Later, Lee graduated from the Graduate School of System Design and Management, Keio University. Lee presently continues her research as a research fellow in the System Design and Management Research Institute, at the same graduate school.