Sensual Technologies: Embodied experience and visualisation of scientific data

Abstract

''Sometimes I think; and sometimes I am.'' Paul Valéry In this text I set out to discuss the relationship between a selection of four works which bring together the sciences, natural processes, the body and sensorial perception. These works are, Ned Kahn’s ‘Seismic Sea’, Luke Jerram’s ‘Tide’, Hugo Kükelhaus ‘Strudel, Wirbel, Spirale’ and Antenna Theater’s ‘Sands of Time’. These works blur boundaries as it is difficult to categories them. They could be seen in science centres visualising scientific principles, in art exhibitions for their aesthetic qualities or possibly function as types of scientific instruments in their own right. They have in common that they use natural processes or environments as a medium of visualisation or as an interface for action and reflection. Within each work the human body plays an essential role in stimulating the imagination through aesthetic experience. These particular examples have been selected for their usefulness to discuss the potentially transformative role of bodily experience in works that emerge from art and science collaborations. The text aims to show a genre of evocative works that not so much depend on technology than on investigations into phenomenology and contemporary research into neuro-plasticity. Their primary goal though is not to create new knowledge but to make curious and to delight. A critical reflection as a result of curiosity may follow later.