The senses work together in multifaceted and even dissonant ways. However, recognition of this multiplicity has been stymied by the emphasis on the “prereflective 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 conceptualization.
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 blending, 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 passionate participation 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.
For more information: https://www.sensorystudies.org/uncommon-senses-iv-sensory-ecologies-economies-and-aesthetics/