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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Rob Cruikshank found out that Sony has a product line called Qualia. He sent me the link, cause I've been using the term in my art lately.
Qualia is basically a technical term from philosophy and neurology defining the "subjective qualities of conscious experience (plural of the Latin singular quale). Examples are the way sugar tastes, the way vermillion looks, the way coffee smells, the way a cat's purr sounds, the way it feels to stub your toe." (Oxford Companion to Philosophy). The term is distinct from sensory perception, or taste or smell, in that it pertains specifically to the function of consciousness. In this regard, qualia has come into question, particularly by Daniel C. Dennett, who does not adhere to the idea of definitive, singular moments of consciouness. Dennett is an influential materialist but some of his colleagues think that in denying qualia he goes too far.
Sony defines qualia as, "phenomena of the heart and mind that can not quite be described in words."
Their website has an eerie dialogue between a guy from Sony's comuputer science lab who is "on a quest to understand qualia" and the chairman of Sony. I've never seen marketing quite like this before.
MOGI : Can you describe some of your qualia experiences?Thanks Rob, I think. For more interesting and bothersome stuff, see Rob's blog.
IDEI : Oh, I have many, although they may sound rather dull when described. Let's see, there are many moments of qualia during a trip, for example. I remember the time I went to the Grand Canyon and rode a mule down to the Colorado River. It took four hours, and when we finally reached the river, I looked up and saw a sky full of stars. That was fantastic. Even now, when I look at starry skies, I remember the qualia of that time. Also, many years ago, I heard Mendelssohn's violin concerto being played by musicians who weren't very skilled. For some reason I can't forget that particular quality of sound. Why is it that we are so moved by things that can't be explained by logic?
[...]
MOGI : The psychologist Daniel Kahneman, one of the winners of the 2002 Nobel Economics Prize, pursues exactly that problem of human behavior defying economic rationality. For example, it's hard to explain from an economic point of view why some person may want to spend a lot of money on an expensive brand-name bag, but it is the most rational and obvious thing to do from the point of view of the human brain. Sony's QUALIA made me realize, actually, the potential of the concept of qualia.