Michael Haverkamp – Exploring the Senses

Exploring the Senses

Synesthesia, Design, Fine Arts and Music

Exploring the five senses is essential for successfull synesthetic design / synaesthetic design / Synästhetisches Design and multisensory applications for multisensory art and product design.

Multisensory Perception and Synesthesia

Synesthesia means the capability of the perceptual system to induce perception within one sensual modality by stimulation of a different sensual area. Similar phenomena are pronounced at relatively few individuals, but show a characteristic permanence. Often, the phenomenon of visual perception caused by auditory stimulation is described as color(ed) hearing. In principle, synesthesia can occur between all senses. Such connections are also observed within one sensory space. In that manner, numbers and letters can get an additional color during a process of visual perception or imagination.

Applications in Art and Design

My papers and artwork mentioned on this website illuminate phenomena of synesthesia, but also consider the widespread capabilities of cross-sensory connections via correspondences, associations/iconicity, multi-sensory symbolism and conscious generation of rules (e.g. with reference to physical parameters or algorithms). This enables development of numerous fields of application, like sound design and perception of soundscapes, multi-sensory ans synesthetic design design of products and interfaces, virtual environments, correlation of music and the fine arts, musical acoustics, and many others. 

List of my publicationsDownload

Current Presentations

2026

Synesthetic approaches on painting of non-tonal sounds – how do visual elements correlate to physical features?

IASAS Symposium

Synesthesia: interdisciplinary research in a multisensory world

May 27th, 2026

The Orgelpark, Amsterdam, NL

Gestaltungskonzepte für alle Sinne: Multisensorisches oder synästhetisches Design?

im Vorkolloquium “Multimodale Interaktion und Virtuelle Realität”

&

Philosophische Aspekte als Fundament einer Analyse der Wahrnehmung

in der strukturierten Sitzung “Philosophie in der Akustik”

23. – 26. März 2026

DAGA 2026 – 52. Jahrestagung für Akustik,  Dresden

Recent Publications (Excerpt)

Klangfarbenvariabilität historischer Flöten. Untersuchungen zur instrumentenbedingten Variation von Ton zu Ton. Akustik Journal 01/26, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Akustik DEGA, 7-22

https://doi.org/10.71568/aj2026.01.01

Journal including the article by Michael Haverkamp: Klangfarbenvariabilität historischer Flöten. Untersuchungen zur instrumentenbedingten Variation von Ton zu Ton. Akustik Journal 01/26, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Akustik DEGA, 7-22 https://doi.org/10.71568/aj2026.01.01
DEGA Akustik Journal 01 / 2026

The challenge of multisensory and synaesthetic design. Proc. VIII International Congress “Synaesthesia: Science and Art,” October 23-25, 2025, Alcalá la Real/Spain. Granada: Fundación Internacional Artecittà, 2025, 346-355

Is there a consistent effect of cross-fingering on the timbre of recorders? Proceedings of DAS|DAGA 2025. Berlin: DEGA e.V., 2025, 637-40

Scope and limits of synaesthetic arts. Proc. VII International Congress “Synaesthesia: Science and Art” *The digital / physical challenge* Oct 26-29, Granada & Alcalà la Real/Spain, 2022, 241-50

How can we approach the topic of the tone-to-tone timbre variability of historical instruments? Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 49, 035005 (2022)  https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001660

Multisensory Design and Acoustics

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Multi-sensory Perception & Design

Two sketches to demonstrate how visual design can reflect the sound of door handle application. Michael Haverkamp, 2019
Door handle forms according to application sound

Articles on Multi-sensory Art

Spectral plot of Arnold Schönberg's piece "Farben", no. 3 of Five Orchestral Pieces op. 16, 1909. Graphics modified by Michael Haverkamp to express the musical pointilism that is clearly audible.
Sound Spectrogramm of music by Arnold Schoenberg

Technical Acoustics

Vibration mode of a brake disc at 11388 Hz measured with Laser Holography at Ford development center for a research project by Michael Haverkamp
Brake disc mode visualized by Laser holography

Musical Acoustics

Example on how the tone-to-tone variability of timbre of an alto recorder changes the timbre melody when transposing to different keys. The various types of timbre of the recorder are symbolized with different colors. Michael Haverkamp, 2025
Change of timbre melody of a recorder with various keys

Books

Book and plates of Alexander Truslit's "Gestaltung und Bewegung in der Musik," 1938. This book was published as reprint by Hans Brandner and Michael Haverkamp in 2015.
Alexander Truslit’s famous book on music and motion

Seminars

Documentory drawing of Workshop on multisensory VR design and synesthetic design of games held by Michael Haverkamp at TH Köln, 2023. Graphic artist unknown.
Sketch of a workshop on multisensory VR design (unknown artist)

Special Sensory Topics

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Acoustics and Philosophy

How does perception of time influence hearing? One of the questions addressed by the work group philosophy in acoustics, 2018-2026, with various contributions by Michael Haverkamp.
Philosophy of time

Music and Body Movement

Demonstration of movement as aspect of sound and music by Alexander Truslit, 1938, related to the motif of hammer swinging in Richard Wagner's Rheingold.
Movement as aspect of sound and music – Alexander Truslit

Effects of vibration on the human body

Vibration test for the effects of whole-body-vibration on fine manual control of driving tasks. Michael Haverkamp performing a test run. Institute of Occupational Health, University of Mainz, c. 1987.
Vibration tests at the Institute of Occupational Health Mainz / Bad Kreuznach, c. 1987

Multisensory Art and Music

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Music by Dmitri Shostakovich

Excerpts of Shostakovich’s symphonies – No. 10

Little Symphonies by Darius Milhaud

6 little images of 6 little symphonies – No. 4

Flute Sonata by Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata BWV 1031 – Allegro

Alpensinfonie: Richard Strauss

Prototype frame refering to Alpensinfonie by Richard Strauss, Michael Haverkamp, 2021

Contributions to Global Swift Project

Swift name in own language with synesthetic colors, Michael Haverkamp, 2025

Photography

Winter scene, Michael Haverkamp, c. 1969

Sounds of daily life

Sound of a coffee dispenser, Michael Haverkamp, 2025

Music

Michael Haverkamp playing improvised music with recoders and saxophone in a reverberation chamber at Ford development center Cologne, 2014
Solo Improvisation in a reverberation chamber at Ford Werke Gmbh Köln, Michael Haverkamp, 2002

Michael Haverkamp – Exploring the Senses

Portrait picture of Michael Haverkamp by Andreas J. Haller©WA Media GmbH, with permission, 2023

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