Paper short abstract:

Cartographies of Human Sensation proposes a set of instruments that attune the wearer to her environment through metasensory perception of biometric signals and reconfigurations of body-environment relationships through radical body extensions. When we perceive nature we experience a whole sea of relations: the wind touching our skin, bright and vibrant colors, odors and sounds that weave into an impression of the place. Within this project we use our instrumental devices to drive speculative field research methods for collecting, categorizing and mapping sensation in natural environments, thus proposing a more temporally and physiologically conscious approach to cartography.

Paper long abstract:

Cartographies of Human Sensation proposes a series of instruments that attune the wearer to her environment through metasensory perception of biometric signals (translated through worn sound synthesizers) and radical body extensions.

While the extensions alter relationships between the body and its environment through estrangement, the instruments make the wearer more attuned to psychobiological responses of transitory events. The two together form a toolset for metasensation, self-reflexive sensing.

Why New Cartographies?: When we perceive a natural landscape we experience a whole sea of relation: of the wind touching our skin, of a multitude of sights, odors and sounds that weave into an impression of the place. We are culturally trained to be more sensitive to some events than others, which e.g. manifests in the way we map the world. Maps are seen as static objects in our part of the world, in other cultures maps and space representations are often interactive, tactile and temporary. The instruments developed afford an opportunity for ongoing/continuous mapping of the body-environment relation, thus perhaps gain a different understanding of space and time.

As the project unfolds we hope to develop a deeper understanding of how the body navigates through space and time, and gestalts for the subtle and unconscious processes that form our experience.

During the conference we aim to invite participants on prepared walks with the instruments. The walks are ongoing conversations with participants, evolving over time and in different locations. They are site-specific, and offer participants a unique opportunity to reflect upon the way they perceive the environment.