Emma Orfield Johnston
emma.orfieldjohnston@pcae.k12.mn.us
Emma is an Executive at Orfield Laboratories Inc., the nation’s only independent, multi-sensory design research and consulting firm. Specializing in the sciences of human perception and cognition, Orfield consults across the fields of architecture, design, and product development – assisting clients in creating spaces and products that are low in stimulus and, therefore, perceptually comfortable for the user.
With a focus on cognitive and perceptual disabilities, Orfield’s background includes extensive research in autism, dementia, aging, anxiety, PTSD, sensory processing disorder, blindness, deafness, and related conditions.
Emma has a deep interest in the restorative experiences of life and the impact of the natural world on hypersensitive groups – and, by extension, on all people. She is immersed in a broad spectrum of therapeutic inquiry and is pursuing formal research into the potential of silence and darkness as a therapeutic modality, including the effects of the Orfield Anechoic Chamber (recognized by Guinness World Records as the “Quietest Place on Earth”) on individuals with invisible disabilities.
Emma Orfield Johnston is a Perpich Arts High School alumna in the Media Arts program.