Art and Synesthesia: Contemporary Art and All Its Senses

The history of art is deeply entangled with the anthropological concept of the sensorium. The sensorium is the unique way in which the senses are shaped and understood in a given culture (Jones, 2005) and its study is essential to understanding that society as a whole (Howes and Classen, 2013). In this paper I examine the Western sensorium, to argue that its prioritization of the visual sense has resulted in the development of purely visual art historical methodologies.

This paper argues that this visual model is inadequate to analyze contemporary art practices that are shifting towards multisensorial experiences, a trend defined as the “sensory turn” (Lauwrens, 2012). To address this discrepancy, this study proposes an alternative methodology which references the neurological condition synesthesia —wherein the stimulation of one sense results in the stimulation of another sense. This concept of sensory mixing is used to examine how the separation of the visual sense from our bodily senses in the “white cube” model (O’Doherty, 1986) is challenged by contemporary art.

To demonstrate the efficacy of this methodology, this study examines multisensorial installation art to address the following questions: How can referencing anthropological studies, expand the discipline of art history to offer art historians and critics a fresh methodology with which to examine multisensory artworks? Why is a sensory approach to art history necessary? And finally, how can contemporary artists appeal to the senses to design more engaging and affective exhibitions?