COLLECTION 01
Volume 01: SYNTHESIS — San Francisco, California — August 1–2, 2026
Phenomenon: Bouba–Kiki effect
Two unfamiliar forms. Two unfamiliar names. Visitors decided which form was ‘Bouba’ and which was ‘Kiki,’ encountering a widely documented association between particular sounds and visual shapes. The work translated the phenomenon into a sculptural environment using objects associated with childhood, sweets, and celebration.
Phenomenon: Sound-induced flash illusion
Inside a darkened room, visitors watched visual flashes accompanied by camera-like sounds and recorded how many flashes they believed they had seen. Auditory information can alter the number of visual events a person reports perceiving.
Phenomenon: McGurk effect
A face presented one visual speech signal while a separate audio signal presented another. For many observers, the resulting perception was neither of the signals that physically existed.
Phenomenon: Pitch–height mapping
Visitors listened to two sounds and positioned them vertically according to where each sound seemed to belong in space. The work explored the widespread association between auditory pitch and spatial height.
POST-EXHIBITION RESULTS CANVAS
Phenomenon: Change blindness
Visitors remembered an apparently ordinary takeout scene before leaving it behind and returning later. The work examined how substantial changes in a visual scene can go unnoticed when attention is interrupted.
Visitors encountered each artwork without first being told which perceptual phenomenon it demonstrated. Scientific explanations and references were presented only after the experience.
Alongside the exhibition, CERE conducted an exploratory public pilot examining visitors’ experiences and understanding of the phenomena. Participation was voluntary and responses were collected anonymously. Analysis and documentation will be published separately.
A dedicated Research Room accompanied the exhibition, allowing visitors to trace each installation back to the scientific literature that informed it.
EXPLORE CERE’S FURTHER RESEARCH →
August 1–2, 2026 · San Francisco, California
Presented by UGLYCASH
Collection 01: AUDIO × VISUAL · Volume 01: SYNTHESIS · CERE, 2026