The Concordia Sensoria Research Team is located in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology on the downtown campus of Concordia University. CONSERT was founded in 1988 by anthropologist David Howes, sociologist Anthony Synnott and cultural historian Constance Classen to provide a platform for exploring the social and cultural life of the senses – facets which are typically overlooked in conventional psychological approaches to the study of sense perception. The membership of the team changes with each project . There have been many projects, from an itinitial focus on aesthetics to a more recent focus on museums and display, and from multisensory marketing to immersive environments using digital.

The Laboratory for Sensory Research is located at the John Molson School of Business and supports research on sensory aspects of marketing. The lab is designed to accommodate experimental, interview, and focus group research on the effects of visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory cues. It offers a flexible set-up as well as audio-visual equipment to deliver sensory stimuli and to record participant responses. The Laboratory of Sensory Research seeks to provide a platform for exchange among researchers exploring the senses, and contributes to the training of M.Sc. and Ph.D. students in the domain of sensory marketing. The lab, which is directed by Bianca Grohmann and funded in part by a Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grant, opened in Summer 2011. The first wave of research projects will focus on interactive effects of sensory modalities (olfaction, touch, vision) on consumers’ responses to products.

labXmodal is a studio-lab founded by Chris Salter dedicated to the research, development, and creation of performative environments – physical spaces with a focus on dynamic and temporal processes over static objects and representations. We research and develop new hardware and software sensing technologies, apply these tools and techniques in solo + collaborative, internationally disseminated artistic works and critically reflect on these practices through technical and theoretical/historical publications, talks and public presentations.

The Concordia Vision Laboratory is located in the Psychology Department of Concordia University (Loyola Campus), and investigates both basic and clinical aspects of vision. The lab is designed to conduct psychophysical experiments into human perception, and is equipped with a state-of-the-art eye tracker capable of recording eye movements to any visual stimulus. The lab also has a computer suite for analyzing human eye movements, and for creating computer models of the human visual system. The lab otherwise provides scientific research evidence for language teaching software that is developed at the Centre for studies in Learning and Performance. Finally, the lab is a teaching facility for Psychology PhD and MSc students, in addition to undergraduate students.