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Geography of the Senses
David Howes,
Co-Director, Centre for Sensory Studies
Concordia University, Montreal
In this note, I would like to offer an overview of the foundations of the geography of the senses, signal the release
of a major reference work in the companion field of the history of the senses, and invite the reader to consider proposing a synthetic work in sensory geography for publication in the Sensory Studies series from Bloomsbury.
The key insight of the geography of the senses is that the senses mediate the perception of space and in so doing contribute
to our sense of place. Yi-Fu Tuan in Topophilia (1972) was the first to call attention to the spatiality of the senses and their role in shaping the affective relation of people to their habitat.
“What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better [through our senses] and endow it with value” he wrote in
Space and Place (1977)
Primed by Tuan’s work, some geographers started questioning the (presumed) transparency of concepts like that of landscape,
and techniques of data gathering like that of remote sensing (i.e. satellite generated imagery).
As regards the latter, J. Douglas Porteous in
Landscapes of the Mind (1990) ventured that: “Remote sensing is clean, cold, detached, easy. Intimate sensing, especially in the Third World, is complex, difficult, and often filthy. The world is found to be untidy
rather than neat. But intimate sensing is rich, warm, involved …” .
For Porteous there was no question as to which methodology – remote sensing or intimate sensing – is more grounded in geographic reality and therefore to be trusted.
The concept of landscape was also interrogated.. As the work of Cosgrove (e.g.
Social Formation and Symbolic
Landscape [1984] 1998)), among others, had shown, the idea of landscape is rooted in a particular Western painterly and literary tradition – namely, the picturesque,
with its reliance on the Claude Glass and other technologies of vision. This visualist bias led to the concept of landscape being bracketed
and replaced by the more neutral term “sensescape.” The latter concept was in turn broken down into soundscape,
smellscape, bodyscape,
and so forth (e.g. by Porteous in Landscapes of the Mind).
This refinement stemmed from the recognition, as articulated by John Urry in
“City life and the senses” (in Bridge and Watson, eds.,
The New Blackwell Companion to the City [2003] 2011)
that: “Each sense contributes [in its own way] to people’s orientation in space; to their awareness of spatial relationships;
and to the appreciation of the qualities of particular micro- and macro-spatial environments”. As a corollary to this, following Paul Rodaway’s lead in
Sensuous Geographies (1994), a number of geographers started taking note of the distinct ways in which different senses are “interconnected” with each other to produce a sensed environment. These ways include:
“cooperation between the senses; a hierarchy between different senses, as with the visual sense during much of the recent
history of the West; a sequencing of one sense which has to follow on from another sense; a threshold of effect of a particular sense which has to be met before another sense is operative; and reciprocal relations of a certain sense with the object which appears
to ‘afford’ it an appropriate response” (Urry op cit.).
These reflections concerning the multiple modes of sensory interconnection are noteworthy for the way they highlight
the relations among the senses, above and beyond their informational content. There is a word for this: “intersensoriality” (see Howes and Classen,
Ways of Sensing: Understanding the Senses in Society, 2013)
The sensory turn in geography, as heralded by Pocock in his 1993
Area article “The
senses in focus,” has precipitated a shift within the discipline from a focus on “spatial organization” (which mainly meant visualization) to
one on “activity” (see Lisa Law, “Home cooking: Filipino
women and geographies of the senses in Hong Kong”
in Howes, ed. Empire of the Senses 2005), “rhythm”
(see Tim Edensor, ed., Geographies of Rhythm, 2010), and above all “atmosphere.” The term “atmosphere” foregrounds
the multisensory character and experience of lived space while downplaying the more formal aspects of environments. Geographers have been developing ever more sensitive methods for registering sensescapes (fulfilling
Porteous’ call) and also of critiquing the political and commercial interests that drive schemes of “urban renewal,” gentrification, and the like (see Monica Degen,
Sensing Cities:
Regenerating Public Life in Barcelona and Manchester, 2008).
The methods in question are typically of a populist, participatory nature and centre on walking (e.g. the soundwalk, smellwalk, touch tour, etc.) as opposed to the God’s-eye-view of the city planning bureaucrat.
Other areas of geography where a sensory approach is making inroads include the geography of tourism (e.g. Tim
Edensor,
Tourists at the Taj: Performance and Meaning at a Symbolic Site, 2002) and that
most venerable of geographical practices -- mapmaking. The practice of cartography has metamorphosed from the production of two-dimensional scalar projections into cybercartography or “multisensory mapping”. This development is partly due to advances in technology.
But it is also inspired by a growing awareness of what the study of indigenous knowledge systems, which tend to be nonpictorial, such as Inuit wayfinding, can contribute to our understanding of human spatial orientation. At the Geomatics and Cartographic Research
Centre at Carleton University, Ottawa there are many innovative cybercartographic forms being developed, which take their inspiration from indigenous practice (see Claudio Aporta, “From map to horizon; from trail to journay: Documenting Inuit geographic knowledge”
in volume 29 Etudes/Inuit/Studies, 2005)
In this brief note, I have presented an overview of the geography of the senses, as I (an anthropologist) see it. I would be interested
to hear your response. Is the overview accurate in broad outline? What other openings do you see? What comes next? I would add that as the General Editor of the Sensory Studies series from Bloomsbury, I am intersted in commissioning a synthetic work in the
geography of the senses. It seems to me that Paul Rodaway’s
Sensuous Geographies (1994) calls for a sequel, given how the field has grown. For further details on the series please see
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/sensory-studies-series/
and please do contact me if you would like to explore an idea for a book.
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Where geography deals with diversity in space, history deals with diversity in time. Each discipline is completed by the other.
The history of the senses has recently undergone a major expansion due to the publication of the 6-volume
Cultural History of the Senses set under the general editorship of Constance Classen. The set is noteworthy for the way it takes a domain-based approach to the history of the senses in contrast to the conventional
sense-based (or one-sense-at-a-time) approach. Each volume consists of chapters on the senses in literature, art, science and philosophy, religion, medicine, media, the marketplace, and the city. The periods range from: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance,
Enlightenment, Nineteenth Century or Age of Empire to the Twentieth Century. It is currently possible to order the set as a whole or individual volumes at a 35% discount. Please go to
www.bloomsbury.com
and, if ordering in the USA or Canada use the promotional code CHS16; if ordering in the U.K. or rest of the world use the code GLR HP8 (This offer is valid through 31 December 2016).
In closing, let me also draw your attention to the upcoming conference of the International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA),
which is to held at Concordia University, Montreal from June 19-22, 2017. A series of panels have been organized around the theme of “The Senses in Everyday Life.” Proposals welcome. For details please write
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