Where does sensing occur: within the sensory organ, the perceived object, or somewhere in between? This panel draws on insights from environmental media to explore the history of sensations. We examine how the environment not only shapes our sensory reality but has also been used historically to define, measure, and standardize the senses.

Waging that the environment is felt just as it is built, the panel foregrounds the instruments, practices, and institutions that render the surroundings sensible, and how ways of sensing the environment, in turn, influence our conceptions of the body and the senses. In doing so, we broaden the scope of environmental media, extending it from the physical and infrastructural aspects of media technologies to the perceptual and sensual acts of mediation. 

We strive to avoid relying on fixed sensory categories, acknowledging the varied ways in which diverse sensing subjects perceive, categorize, and interpret sensory information. Therefore, we welcome projects from all geographic regions, with a particular interest in those that investigate the transnational exchange and adaptation of sensing practices and conceptions of the environment. 

Our collective undertaking is inherently interdisciplinary, and we welcome insights from fields such as the history of art, history of science, literature, cultural & linguistic anthropology, etc. Potential projects include but are not limited to: 

-Sensory deprivation and enhancement 

-Immunology and allergies  

-Spatial perception and design 

-Ambient soundscapes 

-Materiality and texture 

-Affect and atmosphere

-Site-specificity

-Sensory experiments and protocols 

If you are interested in serving as a panelist, please submit your abstract and a short bio to jane.zhang.yz737@yale.edu by August 23rd, 2024.