Conserving Art’s Sensory Experiences

For artist Suchitra Mattai, the sari—a traditional garment from the Indian subcontinent—is more than a piece of fabric; it is a carrier of memory, heritage, and deep-rooted connection.

In her installation The Hollow of Memory, she weaves vibrant saris with fabric and rope to create an intimate grotto where each thread becomes a meditation on the history and experience of her female ancestors. Visitors are invited not only to walk through and sit within the space, but also to engage their senses: to listen closely to a curated soundtrack, smell the cooking spices embedded in the recycled saris, and feel the textures of the woven materials.

Mattai’s work is one component of Wired for Wonder: A Multisensory Maze, developed for PST ART: Art & Science Collide and a collaboration between Getty and Kidpsace Children’s Museum, where the exhibition is located. The exhibition prompts visitors to examine how the brain interprets and integrates multisensory experiences with emotion and memory to shape our understanding of art and the world. In addition to Mattai’s piece, Wired for Wonder features installations by other LA-based artists—including d. Sabela grimes, Miguel Osuna, Alison Saar, as well as the USC Immersive Media Lab and Motorefisico—along with interactive experiments—like the “Smell-o-Phone” and a tasting bar.

Multisensory artworks like these can reshape how we think about conservation. In spaces where touch, sound, and movement are central to the experience, preserving an object’s physical form isn’t always the top priority. Instead, the focus shifts to maintaining how the work engages the senses—how it feels, sounds, and interacts with the viewer.

A Whole Sensory Experience

The concept of the maze began as a metaphor for self-exploration and the intricate complexity of the human brain. “As you go deeper into the maze, you're getting more and more engaged with your senses, and especially the artwork because artists have done the hard work of figuring out how to create that coordinated emotional and neurological response,” says Kidspace CEO Lisa Clements.

Kidspace was the perfect venue for an exhibition like Wired for Wonder because its philosophy embraces interactivity without the usual restrictions of traditional art spaces. “The whole idea is tactile and immersive,” says Tom Learner, Getty’s project lead and head of science at the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI). “You can’t invite people to engage with art and then put up a sign that says, ‘Don’t touch.’”

“One of the things we were really interested in was celebrating the richness and diversity of individuals and their experiences,” adds Clements. “It’s about embracing different ways of knowing.”

That philosophy is reflected in the exhibition’s design. You won’t find traditional wall texts or curatorial explanations—just the name of the piece and the artist. “We’re not telling you how to think about it or why it’s important,” Clements explains. “We’re simply inviting you to experience it.”

For Learner, Wired for Wonder offers a unique opportunity to expand the way we think about science in relation to art. “It really ties back to a fundamental idea,” Learner explains, “that contemporary artists often create work designed to trigger and manipulate our senses. While the experience is frequently visual, it can just as easily involve sound, touch, or even smell.”

Learner and Clements invited Barry C. Smith, director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study and founding director of the Centre for the Study of the Senses, and Ophelia Deroy, professor and chair for Philosophy of Mind and Neuroscience at Ludwig Maximilian University, to serve as scientific consultants for the project.

Together, they helped shape the project’s exploration of the senses, challenging the traditional idea that we only have five—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—through guest-driven sensory activities. Because of the complex ways our brain integrates sensory input, scientists now suggest we may have as many as 32 distinct senses.

Two lesser-known senses are proprioception—the awareness of your body’s position and movement—and thermoception, which allows you to sense temperature. The exhibition’s “Thermal Grill Illusion” experiment explores the latter by inviting participants to touch a series of metal bars: first the cool blue ones, then the warm red, and finally the middle section, which alternates between hot and cold. Although the bars are safe, the brain combines the signals and creates the illusion of intense heat.

Conserving Senses

Wired for Wonder’s interactive sensory experiments are not just about marveling at how the brain works—they have real implications for conservation.

Traditionally, the main goals of art conservation have been to help artworks last as long as possible and to make any damage less noticeable. However, a more flexible, responsive approach to conservation—that honors an artist’s intent and prioritizes the viewer’s experience—might involve replacing parts, allowing natural wear, or even doing nothing at all.

Understanding which senses are activated by a work of art, Learner notes, is essential for preserving it. “You can’t capture the full experience of a piece through photographs or condition reports alone,” he says. “It’s not just about what the art looks like; it’s about the whole sensory experience.”

Challenging the idea that preservation is only about maintaining physical objects invites a broader understanding of art, and the works selected for the show were chosen with this expanded view in mind. They emphasize art as a human experience; memory, emotion, and sensory engagement are just as vital to the works’ meanings as their physical form.

“The object isn’t the whole experience,” says Clements. “We, as humans, help ideas and experiences persist—through shared memory, visual language, and the ways we come together around art.”

Learner sees this also reflected in how the conservation field is evolving. “We need to keep working with spaces where longevity isn’t the primary goal,” he says. “Sometimes, the most meaningful approach is to let people experience the work fully, even if that means accepting its impermanence.”

New strategies for conservation should embrace subjectivity and emotional resonance. "Every person’s individual experience of an artwork is valid and we’re still figuring out how to capture that," Learner says. "The goal is to gather insights from these varied experiences to inform our understanding. Any effort to semi-quantify or describe this part of the experience is better than having no information at all."

Learner hopes Wired for Wonder will help further develop conservation not just as a technical endeavor but a deeply human one—an effort to preserve not only what art is, but what it feels like. “The project invites us to deepen our understanding of art and its conservation, so that new audiences of all ages can experience it in meaningful, transformative ways.”