Call for articles
Sensorium commune. The senses as the common basis of language
Special issue of the journal Communications
Editors: O. Sirost (Université de Rouen) & M.-‐.L Gélard
(Université Paris
Descartes/IUF)
Presentation:
Our senses form the foundation of our communicational acts. They are
the basis of our receiving apparatus, the flesh of our messages, the
experiential grounding of our cultures and our societies. Whether
regarded as a silent language (E. T. Hall), as archaisms that govern
us (F. Nietzsche) or deep predispositions (C. G. Jung), it is our
senses that bear the actual messages of our languages, sometimes
bypassing the written or spoken word and inventing new means of
expression that allow us to renew the ways in which we communicate (J.
Habermas).
Recent progress made by researchers in the field of sensory studies
(notable examples being the network set up by D. Howes, and issue 86
of the journal Communications: ‘Langages des sens’) shows that our
senses, in their capacity as underpinnings for language, can no longer
be considered in isolation from one another. The impression of a
hierarchy and an organic embodiment of the senses is now increasingly
being challenged. We should instead consider them in the light of such
fresh notions as experiential or cultural reservoirs, performances, or
motivating impressions that function as interfaces or networks through
which our sensory apparatuses may interact.
The linguistic turn:
Alongside Kantian anthropology, which made the senses and lived
experiences a nodal point of language and knowledge, emerged a
sensorial linguistics that was in large part inspired by the
philosophical works of Herder. Herder was one of the first thinkers to
talk of the sensorium commune as a means of showing the intertwined
nature of our senses, and their inscription within an intricate
relationship between flesh, matter and the social world. This idea was
taken up by F. Mauthner, who drew an analogy between sensations and
the languages of peoples (seen as organs linking the thoughts of human
beings). The sensorium commune was seen as being both the organ
through which the senses were articulated and the cultural expression
of the shared experience of a given social group. This brilliantly
intuitive insight was developed in multiple directions by
sociolinguistics (M. Buber) and the textual philosophy of the 1960s.
It thus became possible to consider the possibility of a generative
grammar which creates meaning (Chomsky), or a sensorial grammatology
(Derrida).
Sensory experience as a new ‘turn’: the languages of the senses are
blended in the various facets of sensory experience. This is revealed
by the work produced in and on the margins of the Chicago school at
the end of the nineteenth century. The intercultural mix of multiple
ethnic groups and roaming gangs of youths, along with social projects
led by the Ethical Culture movement, turned sensorial language into a
producer of culture and utopias. The new pedagogical approaches to the
body which focused on bodily expression and silent language, or the
inscription of the body within nature, opened up new perspectives for
culture and communication. The findings of the pragmatists still have
a significant bearing on our understanding of alternative means of
communicating and producing culture: tagging, graffiti, techno,
krumping… These act as a primitive grammar, rhythmically structuring
society. The careful study of sensorial messages allows them to be
thought of as tools of communication, of information and exchange, and
in particular of emotional exchange. The senses are thus a form of
media: smell, for example, informs, signifies and embodies
non-‐verbal communication.
The sensorial incorporation of technology: the massive growth of new
information and communication technologies is transforming our methods
of bricolage and our structuring of sensory data (possibly forming the
basis of a process of individuation). Have other linguistic and
cultural forms therefore reached their apogee? It is an inescapable
fact that the material we handle is changing (electrical current,
electromagnetic waves…) and, in return, is changing us. Following the
insights that, in their time, L. Febvre and M. McLuhan brought to this
area, it is necessary to examine the historical inflexions both of our
sensorial languages and of the development of our sensorium commune.
Is the latter plural or structural? Is it becoming embodied in the
technological objects and apparatus that are transforming the lives of
our senses?
Sensory language is complex and subtle. It requires a deep grasp of
the universe of sensations that brings colour to the specific
expressions of identity found in manifestations of the self. This
project aims to address these forms of language through an examination
of manifestations of sensory bodies. Looking at the ways in which
individuals deal with the world of the senses will thus provide us
with a better understanding of how we deal with the social world.
Proposals, including an abstract of 500 words and short CV to be sent
before the 30th May 2013 to:
* Marie-‐Luce Gélard <[log in to unmask]>,
<marie-‐[log in to unmask]>
* Olivier Sirost <[log in to unmask] >
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