Centre for Sensory Studies

11^th Floor, Hall Building
Concordia University
1455  de Maisonneueve Boulevard West
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3G 1M8

Conference: 3 - 6 May 2023

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Lecture by Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond

Dizziness and Climate Action. Reflecting the Possibilities of Research-Creation from the Viewpoint of the Compossible Space.

Dizziness is more than feeling dizzy. Conceptualised as an unpredictable motion, or the illusion of such motion, dizziness happens within a body. Thus, dizziness is not a theoretical concept, the physicality of the phenomenon is germane. This research creation highlights dizziness as a phenomenon of sense in terms of sensory input (impacting our vestibular system) but also in terms of ‘sense’ as emotion, orientation, and sense-making. Based on the concept of the compossible space and augmenting this concept by involving the fields of somaesthetics and somatic practices, such as Feldenkrais, as well as artistic work by contemporary artists, this research-creation traces dizziness to the core of a sustainable and Intra-active coalescence, based on the premise that animates being and inanimate elements permeate and co-constitute each other. Only the experience of sharing a sense of the world with others who look at it from different perspectives can enable us to develop a ‘common sense’, a sense of togetherness in dizziness.

Uncommon Senses IV: Sensory Ecologies, Economies, and Aesthetics.

https://centreforsensorystudies.org/uncommon-senses-iv-sensory-ecologies-economies-and-aesthetics/

The senses work together in multifaceted and even dissonant ways. However, recognition of this multiplicity has been stymied by the emphasis on the “pre-reflective unity” of the senses within the phenomenology of perception and the focus on harmonious integration within cognitive neuroscience. The collision of the senses is inherent to Marshall McLuhan’s notion of the “collideroscope” of the sensorium. With this conference, we seek to explore the potentialities of this conceptualisation.

In the same spirit, the conference will welcome contributions relying on differing disciplinary perspectives. These perspectives may complement one another (multidisciplinary research), or they may coalesce (interdisciplinary research). “Cross-disciplinary research” is the expression we prefer – “crossing” in the sense of bleding, but also of confronting.

The aim of the conference is to highlight the relevance of the emergent understanding of the collision of the senses to thinking about some burning issues of our times:

• As regards ecology, we submit that one way to help offset climate catastrophe is to cultivate an ecology of the senses: rebalancing the senses can contribute to rebalancing our relationship to the environment. For this, we need to expand our sensorium and be more attentive to the existence and perceptions – or sentient capacities – of all beings, human and non-human, including matter.
• As regards the economy, we submit that the upsurge in sensory marketing, trademarking sensations (colour, sound, gesture), and the coming to be of “the experience economy,” all shortchange our senses in the interests of capital accumulation. We stand for the liberation of the senses.
• As regards aesthetics, we conceive of the aesthetic as grounded in passionateparticipation rather than disinterested contemplation, and experience instead of judgment. We recant Kant, and welcome interventions by artists interested in the potential of immersive media (intermedia and performance art) and blurring genres.

Because this conference is dedicated to the promotion of dissensus as well as consensus, we also invite those of a contrary disposition (marketeers, cognitive neuroscientists, acolytes of Immanuel Kant) to interject their voices into the discussion.

Subsidiary themes include:

• Technology. We hold that it is a matter of first importance to critically investigate the proliferation of “sensing machines,” the coming to be of “the sensor society,” and privileging of Artificial Intelligence (AI) over sentience (our birthright). Making sense of “big data” (the qualia-fication of the quantitative) will always be an issue.
• Therapy. We take note of the rapid rise of Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM). Western biomedicine is remiss when it privileges anesthesis over synesthesis, and efficiency in the delivery of medical services in place of sensitivity to the “whole person” as a multisensory being

The cross-disciplinary field of sensory studies is an ever-expanding one, so in addition to papers that address the themes outlined above, we welcome proposals that speak to any of the following areas of research.

• History of the senses
• Anthropology of the senses
• Geography of the senses
• Sociology of the senses
• Sensory education
• Sensory design
• Multisensory art history
• Literature and the senses
• Critical disability studies (including neurodiversity)
• Critical race and gender studies
• Postcolonial studies (decolonization of the senses)
• Politics of the sensible (political life of sensation)
• Research-creation (arts-based practice)
• Multispecies ethnography

This list is not exhaustive. If you have an alternative theme to propose, please do!

Keynote speakers:
Constance Classen, Senior Fellow, Centre for Sensory Studies, Concordia University
Hsuan L. Hsu, Professor, Department of English, University of California at Davis
Kathleen Sitter, Canada Research Chair in Multisensory Research and Knowledge Translation, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary
Charles Spence, Head, Crossmodal Research Laboratory, University of Oxford

Organizing committee (all of Concordia University):
David Howes, Sociology and Anthropology
Jordan Le Bel, Marketing
Geneviève Sicotte, Études françaises
Miranda Smitheram, Textiles