<< Translation processes >>
Working with the senses involves a project of translation: when moving from fieldwork findings, to academic papers or policy reports one needs to draw on different vocabularies to make the sensible tangible for specific aims and purposes.
i. Playfulness:
Our discussions in the network benefited greatly from a playful approach to researching the sensory geographies and histories of places. What we mean with this is that methodologies need to create room for experimental approaches, mixing more traditional methods such as interviews with artistic or creative inputs which can tap into the more poetic, personal and suggestive aspects of the sensory.
> Methods:
Example: Barcelona workshop - Research and Representing for Children (13-16 year olds)
One of the fieldwork groups in Barcelona designed a participatory research methodology with young people in el Raval to research how their sensory perceptions of place supported or discouraged place attachments.
How were the 13/16s to collect the data? There was some discussion about what degree of structure should frame the project’s ‘task’. For example:
- More unstructured / observing task: give them a camera / recorder and tell them to move around capturing whatever interests them personally. The data comes from their current physical use of the space and their movement through it.
- More structured / game playing task: give them an imagined scenario, e.g. a global fashion brand wants to create a new perfume based on the ‘authentic’ smells and feel of el Raval: the task is to analyse the smells and pitch the results to the client. The data comes from their take on what the smells of the space mean to them.
- More structured / analytical task: Analysing and marking pleasant and unpleasant sensory experiences in space using different coloured chalk – e.g. circling areas of particular smells or obstacles to or assets for use.
The project task we settled on incorporated everything (!) The 13/16s would be tasked with observing and analysing the sensory qualities of the space as it is now, but with a view to communicating to their peers their ideas for interventions that would make the space better for them. We assumed that the 13 /16s currently do not use the C. Hospital and its neighbouring public spaces very much – this was somewhere to go through, rather than hang out. The resulting data would be twofold – their analyses of the space’s current sensory qualities: plus their feelings about what it meant – as expressed through what changes, if any, they would like. Ideas around power would be brought into how the young people were briefed on the task, for example through prompt questions which focus on the source of smells / noise etc and who is allowed or not allowed to occupy or use the space in this way:
- what / who is preventing you from sitting or hanging out here?
- who / what has the right to make loud noises here?
- Are the smells here made by ‘approved (by the Council)’ groups or individuals? Etc
> Link to talks/literature:
During our workshop in Barcelona the theatre group ‘Teatro de los sentidos’ did a range of performative exercises to elucidate the importance of the sense of touch to foster engagement or distance between people. Through this ‘dramatization of interactions’ processes of sensing and the senses implicit role of fostering positive or negative associations can be explored.
Giovanna Pezzullo and Stephane Laident (Teatro de los Sentidos)
The Theatre of the Senses
- Teatro de los sentidos web page: http://teatrodelossentidos.com/
Katherine McLean (artist, Royal College of Art)
Invisible, Erratic, Ephemeral: Lives of Urban Smells
- Smellwalks, sensory maps & artworks by artist and designer Kate McLean, http://sensorymaps.com/
ii. Communication:
It is challenging to find methods that communicate the multiple levels of engagement that the senses provide. In our fieldwork days we tried numerous techniques to capture the varied subjective and collective experiences that the senses evoke through a series of methods such as sketching our experience of a place, using immersive theatre to evoke the dis/connectedness between individuals in public spaces or thick description to mention a few.
> Methods:
Here are a few suggestions that emerged from our workshops:
Example 1: London workshop - Standing and sketching
The group chose a public space to stand still for 30 minutes and tried out a range of analogue methods by using paper and pen. Some sketched what they could see and made movement notations; another person drew a list of her immediate sensory impressions. This method tries to get closer to the fluid nature of urban sensing and capture some of the evasive and temporal aspects of urban life.
Example 2: Immersive theatre -Teatro sentidos
Some of the activities and talks by performers elucidated how games can create an imaginary that produces an experience. Those in the workshop felt that particularly the sense of touch brought people closer together, creating a collective experience and opening a space of conversation. What became very clear through this ‘dramatization of interactions’ is that such methods or activities might be used to create senses of attachment through the dramatization or visualization of shared sensory experiences.
Giovanna Pezzullo and Stephane Laident (Teatro de los Sentidos)
The Theatre of the Senses - Performance with participants
Example 3: London workshop - Mapping the senses
The group chose an observational method. They suggested to create three maps of Whitechapel Road. The first one maps the senses of the observer on the street: What smellscapes can be identified? What can be seen? What do the touch-scapes consist of? What can be heard? This is complemented by a map with subjective experiences from people interviewed: What are their feelings about the space? Do they experience a hostile, friendly, oppressive, etc environment? The third step is to create a ‘relationship map’ i.e. asking users of space: why do you experience this space as hostile, friendly or oppressive? The aim of this method is to create ‘places of translation’ bringing together the observational maps of the researcher with the experiences of interviewing people using this space.
> Links to talks/literature:
Alex Rhys-Taylor (sociologist and deputy director of the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths, University of London)
Fried Chicken and Flat Whites: Olfactory Agents of Demographic Change
Isabel Finkenberger (Studio if+ .Büro für Stadtentwicklung und räumliche Transformation, Cologne)
Die Stadt von der anderen Seite sehen/ Seeing the ciy from a different side
iii. Language:
Finding a vocabulary for describing the senses and their social and political impact is one of the greatest challenges. While poetic evocations, story-telling and narratives certainly provide approximations and descriptions academics might want to also experiment with other modes of communication such as body language, images (both photographs and drawings), sculpting or data visualizations to mention a few. We strongly belief that expressing sensory experiences necessitates variable modes of language.
> Methods:
Example: Barcelona workshop - Research and Representing for tourists
An example of how cross-professionality can be useful was the research a group of museum curators, sound artist and sociologist did to explore the soundscapes of el Raval. This group recorded sounds in different areas of el Raval focusing on thresholds to analyse how power-relations might be framed within ephemeral moments of public life.
Physical thresholds implied dramatic changes in soundscape, switching from noisy to quiet environments (lo-fi vs. hi-fi), allowing us to appreciate sounds and acoustics of different spaces; crossing thresholds also conveyed differences in light, temperature and tactile experiences. The concept of thresholds allowed us to investigate the interfaces of public spaces as articulated by streets, courtyards, squares and alleyways. It offered us the opportunity to heighten our awareness of the different qualities of public space embodied in sensorial experience.
> Links to talks/literature:
Raymond Lucas (Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Head of School of Architecture, Manchester University)
Sensory Notations
Katherine McLean (artist, Royal College of Art)
Invisible, Erratic, Ephemeral: Lives of Urban Smells
Introduction by Dr Monica Degen and Dr Astrid Swenson
Introduction to the key aims of the network
Cologne report: story-telling
Firstly, the director of the NS-Documentation Centre Museum made us aware of the senses and emotions literary inscribed in the walls of the buildings – the former Gestapo headquarters – through the writings of former prisoners tortured here – and about the importance of the sensory experience of tangible remains in addressing difficult histories for a historically aware political culture. Through a curators’ tour of the Stadtmuseum we reflected further on the importance of historical research, narrative ‘and story telling’. It became clear how for many displayed objects sensory experiences can be evoked more strongly and meaningfully through a combination of historical information and personal memory rather than through a ‘re-enactment’. How dialogue about the stories of different people (i.e. the meaning given to objects & places across time and space) can be enabled was further illustrated through a discussion of the making of a temporary exhibition on the Eigelstein quarter (where we had our fieldwork) in the museum and in the street.