In this highly innovative work, the senses are liberated from the confines of the present to serve as vehicles for accessing other historical periods and imagined futures. Sense-Making builds on the burgeoning field of sensory ethnography by introducing a pair of methodologie expressly devised to facilitate time-travel.
In this highly innovative work, the senses are liberated from the confines of the present to serve as vehicles for accessing other historical periods and imagined futures. Sense-Making builds on the burgeoning field of sensory ethnography by introducing a pair of methodologies— sensory (re)construction and sensorial extrapolation—expressly devised to facilitate time-travel.
The first part offers a survey and critique of extant work in sensory archaeology and sensory futures. The second part presents a case study of sensory (re)construction in action, focusing on Thornbury Castle (1508-1521) in the UK. The third part probes the life of the senses on the ‘final frontier’, the ‘next habitat’ of humanity – namely, outer space. These sensory case studies are not purely architectural or purely futuristic. They are, at the same time, exercises in ‘arts-based practice’ or ‘research-creation,’ where the authors do not just carry out bibliographic research and write about pasts and futures, they make them.
Sense-Making is necessary reading for the international community of sensory studies scholars, as well as those with interests spanning material culture, museum and heritage studies, visual and auditory culture, experimental psychology, design, and digital technology.
Introduction Part One: Making Sense of Making and the Environment 1.1:
Sensing the Past: Archaeologies of Perception 1.2: Sensing Ahead:
Anthropologies of the Future Part Two: Sensory (Re)Construction as a Way of
Knowing, the Case of Thornbury Castle 1508-21 2.0: Prelude 2.1: The Research
Setting: A Narrative of a Building in the Making 2.2: Epistemic Objects:
Trading Zones made Sensible in 16th Century England 2.3: Traces and Research
Creation: Fragrant Walls and the Table of Delight: On the (re)making of
Walls, Window, Chimney and Table Part Three: Probing the Cosmic Sensorium
3.1: Framing the Future: Staging ETHER 3.2: Speculative Space Habitats:
Applying the Methodology of Sensory Extrapolation
Sheryl Boyle is Director of the Carleton Sensory Architecture & Liminal Technology (CSALT) lab in Ottawa, Canada, where she supervises immersive materials research and innovative design and assembly processes.
Genevieve Collins holds a PhD in Social Anthropology with Visual Media from the University of Manchester, UK. She has worked in the arts and cultural industry of Winnipeg, Canada, and is the co-creative director of a film production company.
David Howes is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Co-Director of the Centre for Sensory Studies at Concordia University, Canada. In 2024, he was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada.
