Media Design Program | Art Center College of Design

Bouba & Kiki Shape Training Project

Good Living

Bouba & Kiki Shape Training Project is a new shape language that evolves from the research in synesthesia. Synesthesia is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory. For example some people associate sound with different colors, others link shapes with sound.

Bouba & Kiki effect was first observed by German-American psychologist Wolfgang Kšhler in 1929. Without further information, over 90 percent participants can correctly identify the shapes of Bouba and Kiki disregard what their native language is. On the top of that, it also occurs to me that most languages can only describe basic geometric shapes like square, circle, rectangle. etc. and when there is a shape that doesn't have a name, we usually refers to existing objects, like a car shape, etc. Therefore, Using the characteristics of Bouba & Kiki Effect as the foundation of the project. I create a shape naming system that could expand beyond the existing language. After this training video, people will be able to gain more vocabularies about irregular shapes and discover different possibilities within the realm.