Room LB-205 Ehsan Akbari (Faculty of Education, University of New Brunswick, Canada)Sensing the Environmental through Art EducationIn this presentation, I will explore ways educators can integrate art and sensory education to sensitize learners to environmental issues. Bertling (2023) argued for the urgency of incorporating eco-pedagogy in art education to inspire a generation of ecologically aware citizens. Such teaching aims to nourish l...

2026 will mark the 20th anniversary of the launch of The Senses and Society and coining of the term ‘sensory studies.’ Senses and Society was founded by Michael Bull and David Howes (who have alternated in the role of Managing Editor every 3-4 years) and Doug Kahn and Paul Gilroy. The term sensory studies was selected (over e.g. ‘sensography’) and used in the title of the inaugural article, ‘Introducing Sensory Studies,’ in order to serve as an umbrella term for the multiple sub...

Organizer: Vladimir Janković (Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, UK)The panel proposes to explore and invite conversation on the episodes of nineteenth-century phenomenology of light, air and odour as aspects of the environment (and envelopment) that are once perceived as atmospheric, optical and affective. In bringing to attention the practices associated with the realities and ideals of the European notions of the intimate, the m...

Hsuan Hsu √ (English, University of California, Davis, USA)Olfactory WorldmakingThis paper will argue that worldmaking—a concept that has been the focus of conversations in phenomenology, science fiction studies, critical ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies, and environmental humanities—offers a generative framework for understanding aesthetic experiments that center the sense of smell. The presentation will develop, through close analysis of literary texts and m...

Organizer: Akihisa Iwaki ∆ (Kindai University, Japan)Scented Acrylic Colors (https://camp-fire.jp/projects/777431/view) is a scented acrylic paint released at the end of 2024.This innovative product is a collaboration between @aroma’s "100% pure natural essential oils" and Holbein’s high-quality acrylic paints, Acrylic Color (Heavy Body). The project began with a meeting between Masaki Taniguchi (affectionately known as Maa-chan), a visually impaired painter, and scenting design...

Anna Harris ∆ (Department of Society Studies, Maastricht University, The Netherlands)The Sensory Potential of Hospital MatterIn this talk I will explore the sensory potential of materials in the context of the hospital. Hospitals are currently seen as sites of clinical waste, using excessive single-use plastics and disposables, generating mountains of rubbish. Inside hospitals however, people work with materials in many different ways. They might find new uses of objects ...

Peter Sebastian Chesney (History of Art & Architecture, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA)Burning Rich, Burning Lean: Expertise and the Smell of Automobile ExhaustThis paper offers a comparative history of two 20th-Century global cities: Los Angeles and Berlin. L.A. acquired a reputation for its "smog" after World War Two. Rich with unburned carbon fumes from the exhaust pipes of automobiles, the region's air reacted with sunlight to form a thick, dark, eye-stingi...

Organizer: Jayanthan Sriram ∆ (Centre for Sensory Studies, Concordia University, Canada)How do you experience light and sound in accordance to smell? If you think this question is asked backwards, with smell having to follow your sense of sound and light, you are in for a treat. Born out of a collaboration with the ITHQ (Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Québec) and ExperiSens, Modal Olfactory Atmosphere finds its second iteration as an interactive and collaborative workshop. W...

Erika Wicky ∆ (Departments of History and Art History, Université de Grenoble, France)A Taste for the Scent of Sugar: Perfumery and Confectionery in 19th-Century FranceWhile the role of synthetic materials such as coumarin, heliotropin, and vanillin in the development of the perfume industry at the end of the 19th century is often acknowledged, it is frequently overlooked that these substances were initially used to flavor candies and liquors—two highly sweetened product...

Ana Maria Ulloa √ (Anthropology, Universidad de los Andes)Better Smelling Through ChemistryIn the talk I will focus on how olfactory training for chemistry students interested in studying the aroma of tropical fruits has occurred at different periods and across the classroom, the laboratory, and the industry in Colombia. I will highlight chemists' perceptions about the importance of this type of training for their research and work and how sensory training opportunities a...

Organisers: Dorit Kluge ∆ and Isabelle Pichet ∆ (VICTORIA, International University, Berlin, Germany; UQTR, Canada) Dorit Kluge ∆ (VICTORIA | International University, Berlin, Germany)The Sound of Art Experience: Between Longing for Silence and the Need for Communicative Exchange in MuseumsMuseums and society have entered a close symbiosis from the very beginning (Habermas, 1962). This arises from the interaction of artwork, exhibition design, architect...

Organizer: Warsame Isse ∆ (Communication Studies, Concordia University, Canada)Black technopoetics is a term coined by Louis Chude-Sokei that refers to the intersection between creative expression, technology and Blackness according to Louise Chude-Sokei. I am implementing this concept as I utilize guitar pedals and haptic transducers to hear, feel and distort the sonic media that is a part of my Somali intangible cultural heritage. Intangible cultural heritage (here after referred to ...

Jo Michael Rezes (Theater & Performance, Tufts University / Emerson College (Affiliated Faculty), Somerville USA)Sharing the Sounds of Vanilla Sex (in Viral Loads): Transnational Afterlives of HIV/AIDS in the House of Air (2017)Brendan Maclean’s House of Air (2017) music video is a campy enfleshment of the structuralist aesthetics of Gay Semiotics (1977), Hal Fischer’s photography series of sex codes for gay men in San Francisco. In House of Air, queer sex is on f...