Exhibition curation with Janice Li

Seeing Senses with Sarah Hyndman

Designing beyond sight with with touch, senses and story.

“When you get really conceptual … having something to touch really brings you to the landscape.”

Discover why a beautiful installation evoked such a bad memory. Find out how Janice turns data into music, emotions into colour and encourages engagement through touch.

Curator Janice Li invites us behind the scenes of the latest exhibition at Wellcome Collection. She talks with Sarah about exhibitions designed to be multi-sensory, tactile and emotionally resonant. Janice shares how materials, memory, and meaning are woven together through touch, texture, sound, and scent. She explains how she incorporates inclusivity and access, and embodied learning, to do different things.

This conversation moves through cabbage soundtracks, yellow memories, and beauty you can smell. It’s about how curating with the body in mind creates exhibitions that stay with you.

“We’re not just showing data, we’re trying to make it resonate, emotionally and physically.”

Guest
Janice Li is a curator at Wellcome Collection (London) where she has curated Thirst: In Search of Freshwater (2025-26). Her curatorial work is seen internationally at the Victoria & Albert Museum, MoMu Antwerp, London Design Biennale, Milan Design Week and Venice Design. She advocates for and commissions transdisciplinary practices across the arts, humanities, and sciences as agents of change. Many of her projects investigate the interactions and movements between people and the ‘things’ they sense, make, use and wear across time and space in a crossmodal and transcultural context. Food Symphony (cabbage nutrition data as music); Sit, Feast on your Life at Milan Design Week.

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Key takeaways
• Cross-modal experiences can enhance our understanding.
• Embodied learning allows us to connect on a deeper level.
• Curatorial practices can incorporate sensory engagement.
• A medium to explore complex themes.
• The journey of a curator as non-linear and self-initiated.
• Collaboration between artists, scientists, and curators.
• Understanding the materiality of objects.
• Emotional responses can be influenced by sensory experiences.
• Creating opportunities for tactile engagement.

Outline
The Crossmodalists
Exploring the Role of Senses in Exhibitions
Inclusivity and Embodied Learning in Curating
The Process of Exhibition Planning
Understanding Implicit Memory and Sensory Experience
Incorporating Friction in Exhibition Design
Exploring Sensory Connections in Design
Janice Li’s Unique Journey in Curatorial Practice
The Importance of Self-Initiated Projects
Reflections on Meaningful Experiences and Memories

“Slow down and breathe and feel.”

Host
Sarah Hyndman is a designer/researcher, author and speaker. You can book her to speak or bring her activity lab to your event or organisation here via Type Tasting. Sarah is the founder of Type Tasting and curator of The Sensologists.

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Seeing Senses. Where there’s more than meets the eye.
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Theme music by AudioKraken.