Trend: A New Era of ‘Wellness-Art-Tainment’–More High-Tech, Multisensory Experiments in Spa and Wellness
Thanks to new technologies such as generative AI, projection mapping and spatial sound, more immersive, awe-inspiring wellness experiences that engage all the senses are on the rise
Our 2024 trend, “A New Multisensory, Immersive Art for Wellness,” explores how multisensory art installations and experiences are hitting so many spaces: museums, art galleries and public spaces, but also hospitals, hotels, spas and wellness centers. These next-gen multisensory art-meets-wellness experiences are expressly designed to boost mental wellbeing and make both art and wellness a far less passive and more boundary-pushing experience. You could call it a new, trendy “wellness-art-tainment,” with futuristic multisensory experiences powered by innovations such as generative AI, VR, holograms, projection mapping, LED screens and spatial sound technologies.
If wellness and spa have always been a sensory affair, these high-tech multisensory experiences reach far beyond old offerings like a massage with aromatherapy or soundbath yoga. If the spa/wellness industries use so many stock images because offerings can often be similar, these heady new sensory immersion experiences are quite the opposite of “stock”—they draw crowds and go viral. For instance, QC Terme’s multisensory cinema pool at its Milan spa has a video skyscape that immerses you in a lightning storm lashing a mountain landscape as you take your rain bath. It generated around 70 million views on TikTok in 2023.
Since neuroscientist and sensory designer Ari Perlata wrote our trend, there have been many multisensory wellness experiments … in every direction. At Davos 2024, a multisensory art installation using generative AI was designed to bring people close to nature so they felt an urgency to protect it. You could see, hear and smell vibrant “generative nature simulations” of the rainforest, soaring waterfalls, colorful birds and flowers. Kohler unveiled a multisensory, at-home spa-shower experience with 12 water streams and 11 water, light, sound and steam experiences. A new multisensory fragrance studio, Bleu Nour, is even shaking up the perfume industry by turning colors into scents.
Surprising and spectacular moves in spa and wellness: The trend covers how wellness destinations and spas are creating unique multisensory experiences, such as Six Senses Resorts experimenting with everything from bio-alchemy sculptures infused with scents, to flotation experiences suffused with ocean sounds, to geodesic domes with vibroacoustic floors. Since the trend was published, there have been interesting developments. It’s notable that the immersive arts pioneer/star, and Meow Wolf’s co-founder, Corvas Brinkerhoff’s next business venture is to create a multisensory wellness bathhouse concept called Submersive (first slated for Austin, Texas in 2026). The vast social bathhouse, with 12 very different multisensory “spas” circling a communal gathering space, will unleash video projection, immersive art, steam, underwater sound, lasers, and AI technology. Submersive is enlisting neuroscientists to help visitors achieve elevated states like awe and euphoria. They estimate to attract 200,000 visitors a year and plan to expand to the US and globally. The spa developer Josef Wund has launched a new multisensory wellness experience, Forest Bathing: Lupuna, at Therme Euskirchen in Germany, where guests step through a waterfall into an immersive journey to the heart of an Amazonian rainforest. Singapore’s Tourism Board has just issued a tender for a new world-class wellness attraction, which specifically seeks therapeutic arts and multisensory experiences like light- and frequency-based therapies.
The Future: If pushing the boundaries of sensory immersion in culture and wellness is the future, our trend report notes we must be cautious. Immersive experiences need to be approached in a scientific and balanced way, setting limits on the duration and frequency of engagement. They can overwhelm. VML notes in its “Sensory Techtopias” report that while 64% of people expect virtual experiences to activate all their senses, 54% report finding multisensory experiences overwhelming. One solution is already being worked on: using wearable technologies that can track heartbeat, mood, etc. to tailor multisensory experiences so they’re more personalized, adaptive and therapeutically effective.
Discover the 10 Trends Shaking Up the Wellness Industry in 2024 Here
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