Sensing, Sounding and Sense-making with Whalesong

This paper examines multisensory cultures of listening within the scientific study of whalesong. As all corners of terrestrial life are impacted by the ongoing effects of humans, so too are the aquatic worlds of marine mammals. For decades, whalesong has provided the sonic signature for scientific and social scrutiny, be it from noise pollution or industrial hunting. Blending literature from STS/Sound Studies (Bakker 2022; Bijsterveld 2019; Gabrys; 2019; Helmreich 2015) and qualitative interviews with bioacoustic experts, this paper unfolds the sensory and technological milieu in which scientific listening takes place. Shifting between the field and lab, it examines the role of the ‘expert’ as a marginal yet omnipresent witness within the search for knowledge, probing the methods and tools involved when sensing worlds beyond the human. What are the consequences of technologies such as hydrophones, spectrograms and machine learning? What modes of sensing and sense- making are afforded to the expert earwitness in the expanding technical ocean? Working these questions back and forth, the paper proposes nonhuman sonic agents as obstinate teachers capable of shaping human knowledge production whilst simultaneously evading meaning and representation. Keywords: Listening, Sensing, Sound, Technology, Witness

Bronwyn Thies-Thompson ∆ (Religions and Cultures, Concordia University, Canada)

Vocal Alignment: A Sixth Sense?

This paper explores the benefits of applying a sensory studies lens to recent propositions in the field of voice performance/pedagogy. In classical singing classrooms, the concept of "vocal alignment" refers to a state of balance between one's posture, breath control, and vocal resonance, all believed to be required to obtain ‘an optimal’ vocal performance. Voice pedagogues present vocal alignment as a key component to achieving not only an 'aesthetically beautiful' tone, but to also do so in a 'healthy' way. However, artist/researcher Gabriel Dharmoo proposes that we understand vocal alignment, instead, as a “process of self-reflection and a research-creation method,” to align the vocal sounds a body can produce with one's "artistic, personal, social, and political voice.” (Dharmoo 2023) Drawing on autoethnographic experiences from my own vocal practice, along with Eidsheim's understanding of voice not as "a distinct entity, but rather part of a continuous material field," (Eidsheim 2019), I consider “voice” through a new materialist lens, as co-created through different bodymind, spatial, and environmental layers. In so doing, I build on Dharmoo's redefinition, proposing vocal alignment as another sense that includes not only one's personal artistic agency, but the awareness of one's intimate relationship with their material architectural environment.
Keywords: vocal alignment, architecture, new materialism, singing, artistic agency

Runjia Cai √ (Anthropology, University of Alberta, Canada)

Sensory Experience Transfer in Cross-cultural Cognition

Sensory studies are increasingly emphasized in the humanities and social sciences today. This paper advocates linking anthropology of senses and cognitive science theories, thus providing a new perspective. In particular, how people conceptualize sensory experiences in the context of a particular culture, and how to take cross-cultural conceptual transfers. In this case, people need to rely on the context of a particular culture to form conceptual maps to help them understand what is new. This conceptual map will be deepened with the enrichment of professional knowledge. When people communicate across cultures, the senders need to realize the subjective perspective of sensory experience to the receivers, in order to achieve the social purpose. In this paper, I try to introduce the Theory of Embodied Simulation, and use the example of tea and coffee to provide a new methodological perspective for analyzing the transmission process and conceptual transformation. If the receivers have professional knowledge in the relevant field, they may be able to simulate the sender's description without a long period of professional learning. They may also be able to imagine the sensory experiences they have had in the past, thus achieving a simulated transmission of sensory experiences.
Keywords: cognitive anthropology, sensory studies, embodied simulation, cross-culture, conceptualization