The five-part division of the senses—sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch—might seem self
evident. Yet this framework, along with the prioritization of sight (sometimes termed "ocularcentrism"), reflects imperialist hierarchies of perception rooted in Enlightenment thinking. In media studies and TS, emerging technologies frequently reinforce dominant sensory hierarchies, erasing the existence of sensory systems and experiences which vary across geopolitical contexts.
This roundtable highlights the importance of sensory plurality from the late 19th century to our digital pre sent. It brings together junior scholars in media studies, comparative literature, and East Asian studies e xploring intersections between sound, color, scent, and taste. Lida exploresthe theambivalence of color as a "sense" and its enmeshment with white supremacist ideals, while Chelsea historicizes the shifting relationship between vision and olfaction in interwar Japan. Next, Kaitlin and Júlia look at the attempted digitization and transmission of scent in 4DX cinema and problematization of smell capture through perfume, respectively, while Harry focuses on how digital sound formats make computation sensible. Can foregrounding “minor” senses act as a political intervention? Ultimately, how might disrupting traditional sensory hierarchies reshape interdisciplinary media scholarship and our engagement with
the technologies we use every day?

Speakers:
1. Lida Zeitlin-Wu, Assistant Professor, Old Dominion University ∆

Keywords: color, technology, taste, race, mediation, capitalism 

2. Chelsea Ward, Postdoctoral Fellow, Wellesley College ∆

Keywords: (silent) cinema, olfaction, nationalism, sensation, intermediality 

3. Kaitlin Clifton Forcier, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago ∆

Keywords: scent, mediation, digitization, communication, VR 

4. Júlia Irion Martins, PhD Candidate, University of Michigan ∆

Keywords: smell, mediation, capture, indexicality, temporality 

5. Harry Burson, Lecturer, University of Illinois at Chicago ∆

Keywords: sound, software objects, immersion