Sandra Hoffmann
About the Research Uncharted Territory—Typgraphic Synaesthesia. Can transdisciplinary studies of visual communication and neuroscience help designers explore different approaches and perceptions about synaesthesia? The doctoral dissertation Uncharted Territory—Typographic Synaesthesia will investigates genuine Synaesthesia, a special form of conscious experience. From the Greek syn = union or together, and aisthesis = sensation or perception. Synaesthesia is a neurological condition affecting anywhere between 0.5% and 5% of the worlds population. The authors foci of observation addresses three forms of visual perceptive phenomena: 1. Grapheme-colour, 2. Ticker-tape and 3. Spatial sequence synaesthesia. Each of these three types have either typographic stimuli (in scientific terms inducers) or typographic sensorial experience (concurrents in scientific terms). The inner representations or images of thought triggered within the above categories are 1: Coloured letters and digits, 2: Strips of sentences and 3: Visual schemata for time units. About the Researcher Sandra Ellen Hoffmann Robbiani was born and educated in Canada. She studied Communication Arts / Graphic Design in Vancouver at Capilano College. For six years she worked as a graphic designer in diverse Design Studios in Vancouver. In 1986 she traveled to Europe to attend the Yale Summer Programme for Graphic Design in Brissago, Switzerland. Instructors included Dorothea und Armin Hofmann, Paul Rand, Richard Sapper and Wolfgang Weingart. In 1988 she left Vancouver for postgraduate studies (Grafik-Weiterbildung) at the renowned "Schule für Gestaltung" in Basel, Switzerland. From 1991 until 1998 founder and partner of various Graphic Design Offices in Basel, 1998 until today in Berne. Since 1993 she teaches in Germany, and since 1995 she is Professor for “Typography and Communication Design” at the Hochschule Darmstadt, Fachbereich Gestaltung (University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt, Faculty of Design), In 2003 she attended the Executive Masters Programme "Cultural & Gender Studies" at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Zürich. Website www.fbg.h-da.de
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