Your Reality Is a Construction 2024 Edition Airdrop

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Abstract: “Your reality is a construction” is my first independently published non-science book and the first original book written as/by an non-fungible token (NFT) fictional character, Thorpe Brown, who is part of the metaverse of The Ape Society (https://www.theapesociety.io/), an NFT community on the Cardano blockchain. The book presents a short reflection for every day of the year, intended to make people question their reality, deconstruct it, and reconstruct it, such that it serves their life purpose(s).

What is the story of Thorpe Brown? Once upon a time, while Thorpe Brown (an non-fungible token character in the metaverse) was performing his craftsman duties, he had a revelation: Nothing has meaning in itself, or does it? His world crumbled and lost all meaning. He woke up from the illusion. What is reality? What is it all about? He wondered… The world around us, our perceptions of it, our likes and wants, or communities and societies, are all constructions, aren’t they? This shocked him. What have I been living for? So, he decided to withdraw from his everyday life to a remote cabin in the world of The Ape Society, somehow like Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and Henry David Thoreau did. After major turmoil and having his mind transformed, he turned to philosophy and now reflects daily on his journey of de- and re-constructing reality, perception, and illusion, meaning and value, and more broadly, life. “Your reality is a construction” compiles a collection of his reflections.

Hei! Carlos Velasco is an Associate Professor at the Department of Marketing, BI Norwegian Business School (Oslo, Norway), where I co-founded the Centre for Mulisensory Marketing, and where I work on multisensory experiences.

Academic Background
I received my D.Phil. in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University (Crossmodal Research Laboratory). Following that, I worked as a Research Fellow at the SCHI Lab, Sussex University (UK, 2015 and 2017-2020), the Imagineering Institute (Malaysia, 2015-2016), and the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight, hosted by Nanyang Technological University (Singapore, 2017-2018). During some of those years, I was also a research affiliate at the University of Oxford (2015-2017). Currently, I’m once again a research fellow at the SCHI ‘sky’ Lab (UK) and a visiting professor at the Basque Culinary Center (Spain). During 2022-2023, I’ve been a visiting professor at Kedge Business School (France), Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), and The University of Tokyo (Japan).

Research and Teaching
My work is at the intersection between Psychology, Marketing, and Human–Computer Interaction, and focuses on understanding, and capitalizing on, our multisensory experiences and their guiding principles (see Research, for more details and an excerpt from my lecture on multisensory experiences below).

Me and my colleagues have presented our research in conferences such as Pangborn, SXSW, ICMI, SenseAsia, CHI, TVX, and ESOMAR. We have also published it in journals such as Food Quality and Preference, Journal of Retailing, Food Research International, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Journal of Business Research, Psychology and Marketing, Motivation and Emotion, and Frontiers in Psychology. I have published five books, including three edited collections, and one non-science book (see books). Currently, I’m part of the Editorial Board of Food Quality and Preference, Journal of Business Research, Psychology and Marketing, the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, and the International Journal of Food Design. Our research has been covered by several media outlets (e.g., Financial Times, Aftenposten, NPR All Things Considered, The Guardian, Big Think, New Yorker, Wired, IFT, Science Daily, El Tiempo).

I have taught several undergraduate, master’s, PhD, and executive courses including multisensory experiences, multisensory marketing (module 3 in link, see some photos here), sensation and perception, brand management, service marketing, customer experience management, digital marketing, and consumer neuroscience. Currently, I’m co-hosting the customer experience management podcast.

Industry
I’ve worked with a number of companies from different countries such as Asahi Breweries, Symrise, Nordic Approach, Asian Institute on Consumer Insight, Financiera Nacional de Desarrollo (FDN), Seguros Bolívar, and SALMA. This work has focused on a variety of topics including multisensory experiences, food and drink, branding, consumer research, and innovation. See Consulting for more information.

Personal
I’m from Bogotá (Colombia), but have also lived in Calgary (Canada), Oxford and Brighton (UK), Boston (USA), Iskandar Puteri (Malaysia), Singapore, Stockholm (Sweden), and Oslo (Norway). I enjoy nature (the fjords!), travels, abstract art, meditation, philosophy, experimental music (e.g., progressive rock/metal), guitar playing, stargazing, Korean BBQs (and Bokbunja-ju), and Japanese whisky. I have an awesome cat whose name is Juno.