Sonic Envelopes

ABSTRACT

This article examines ways in which an individual's experiences of spatial environments are informed by physical and psychic perceptions of sound. It explores how sonic images, memories, voices, spaces and events constitute “sonic envelopes.” These aesthetic figures are developed out of the late-nineteenth-century writings by the philosopher Henri Bergson and from contemporary audio-walks by the artist, Janet Cardiff. Each shows that sound, space and time are embodied in the individual's powers of sensory perception. Bergson and Cardiff's sonic envelopes may therefore enable reevaluations of the relationships between sound, space and time that connect the individual to his or her environment.     

Signature Scents

ABSTRACT

Perfume critique is an underdeveloped academic field, and this includes considerations of perfume as a theme within other art forms such as literature. In this article, Angela Carter's Wise Children and Monika Fagerholm's Wonderful Women by the Sea are read alongside perfume blogs in order to analyze the significance of perfume references in the novels. It is demonstrated that the authors' choice of perfumes for their characters plays a crucial part in their characterization, especially in relation to the theme of identity change. Using Alfred Gell's analysis of perfume use as bound up with “the transcendence of the sweet life,” it is argued that female characters use perfume to become someone else, sometimes a past self. Furthermore, the use of perfume as a literary device in these novels is shown serve as the vehicle for a feminist critique of the division between “masculine” “high” and “feminine” “low” culture.     

Fearless Trembling: A Leap of Faith into the Devil's Frying Pan

ABSTRACT

Phenomenologically and reflexively influenced, this paper investigates an experiential conception of the imagination through an exploration of an extreme bodily act. Foremost, it sets the scene for a conceptual consideration of dangerous practices such as cliff jumping. This potentially pushes the level in which we can reflect upon such a thing as an existential or embodied imagination. Here modernity's leveling of the docile body is challenged. Hence, in focusing on those sub-cultural practices that involve the extreme use of landscape, I propose an alternative scenario in which to consider the creativity of the body. Such a framework situates hazardous activities beyond the level of much contemporary thinking within the anthropology of sport or the sociology of risk, to a more far-reaching—perhaps “extremist” position—where they come across as existentially poignant, performative acts of the social imagination.     

‘Making It’ Versus Satisfaction: How Women Raising Young Children in Poverty Assess How Well They Are Doing

ABSTRACT

Using in-depth interviews with 17 women raising young children in urban poverty, two separate standards were examined—“making it” and satisfaction. “Making it” referred to one's perceived ability to meet the basic physical needs of her children. In contrast, satisfaction referred to how closely one's current life circumstances align with her personal notions of success. Results indicated that self-expectations greatly influenced which standard individuals prioritized, such that those with higher expectations valued satisfaction while those with lower expectations prioritized “making it.” Self-expectations aligned largely with one's poverty status, and women with the fewest economic resources typically expected the least for their lives. Findings from this study suggest that efforts to support women raising young children in poverty must address both standards if they are to be relevant, effective, and sustainable. Similarly, if individuals are to succeed in such interventions, they must be supported in developing higher expectations for their lives, given the role that expectations play in catalyzing one's sense of a life beyond survival. Future research and implications for theory and practice are outlined.     

Regimes of Vision and Products of Color

ABSTRACT

This article argues in favor of opening up media studies and visual studies to a new line of sensory inquiry—namely, embracing color as a powerful and pertinent mode of communication. It probes the contemporary state of color products and/or products of color through three interconnected categories (that is, color as expression of identity or quality; color as mark of individuality and color as cosmetic) to reveal not only the complex interplay between “signature” and “shock” hues, but also the implications for color codification—and for color communication as a whole.     

You Don't Always Have to Pick Up Your Mess Right Away: How Being Messy Can Be Really Neat!

SUMMARY

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate a first year student's field placement experience at a group home for mentally ill adolescent boys. Upon discovering she has to “un-learn” past “learned” group work skills, she eagerly anticipates future opportunities to utilize “re-learned” theory acquired from major method course readings and lectures. Once in the field, she confronts the difficulties that this presents. The following is an account of the fears and frustrations as well as the joys and rewards one student encountered while attempting to apply and practice group work methodology in the field.     

Nondeliberative Practice from the Field: Illustrations from a Group Worker

ABSTRACT

This article reviews features of Lang’s nondeliberative practice and provides illustrations from the field of group work that demonstrate these concepts. Nondeliberative practice enables problem solving in ways other than verbal and cognitive: the experience of a group of women who went on their first Outward Bound trip into the wilderness; adolescents who, through acting as their favorite living creature, made connections in nonverbal ways. The “doing” of the activity—be it symbolic, pictorial, performance, game, or other actional mode— is experienced affectively and analogically, and is transferable to other aspects of life.     

Parents’ verbal communications with schizophrenic offspring∗

Abstract

Current research findings as well as both public protests and lawsuits by parent groups demonstrate the increasing dissatisfaction with prevailing approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of the syndrome termed “childhood hyperactivity.” First, this study summarizes a comprehensive review of research about the syndrome, and elaborates the research and practice issues that give rise to the contemporary controversy. Then, a promising, comprehensive new theory of child development, psychopathology, and treatment — intrapsychic humanism — is applied to the psychosocial treatment of children labelled hyperactive and their families in mental health, educational, and child welfare settings.     

Sing … Then Think: Musical Interventions and Nondeliberative Forms of Practice in Social Work Groups

ABSTRACT

The positive effects of music have been demonstrated worldwide in many fields including social work, psychology, medicine, and education. Musical interventions including music listening, lyric analysis, and singing have also been found effective in group work. This article, guided by Norma Lang’s nondeliberative theory, aims to provide the “why,” “when,” and “how” of incorporating music into social work groups. It also provides the reader with a toolbox of musical interventions and the encouragement to utilize these “artful, actional, and analogic” activities in group work.     

Judaism

Abstract

Judaism can be understood as a “hidden diversity.” This article introduces practitioners to the numerous ways through which Jews relate to, express, and find meaning in their Jewish identity. It informs therapists about the many differences that lie beneath Jewish clients' white or not-so-white skins, and provides guidelines for therapists interested in engaging those differences in treatment. It also discuses some of the ways in which Jews connect to their Judaism: through spiritual and religious practice; through traditions, holidays, and the observance of Jewish law; and through connections to their families, local communities, and to Jews throughout the world.     

Animated Spaces

ABSTRACT

Recent exhibitions of interaction design have sought, and often struggled, to capture within the space of a traditional gallery the multisensorial, often performative nature of the user experience and the richness of the contexts within which that experience takes place. Similarly, many architecture exhibitions have attempted to reinvent the place of architecture in the modern museum—to portray architecture as a multimodal, multisensory shaper of the material landscape that impacts people's everyday lives. Yet, again, the “white cube” complicates curators' and exhibition designers' efforts to go beyond traditional materials—blueprints, renderings, models, and photographs—to convey the dimensionality and material richness of built space. This article will examine how interaction design and architecture, both experiential fields, present unique challenges to the exhibition designer. It will also consider how these fields, by virtue of the distinctive qualities of their designed objects, offer unique opportunities for us to rethink the relationships between the contexts and contents of exhibition. It will conclude with specific recommendations for ascertaining the limitations and affordances of—and critically negotiating between—the exhibition space, the exhibition's publics, and exhibition modes and media.     

Sensing Cittàslow: Slow Living and the Constitution of the Sensory City

ABSTRACT

In 2004 Aylsham, Norfolk, became Britain's second Cittàslow Town (Slow City). Embedded within the slow living ideology of Cittàslow is the assumption that the “better” life it advocates involves heightened sensory experience and concomitant pleasure. In contrast to contemporary fast life, it wishes that “suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment [may] preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency” (The Slow Food Companion 2005: 6). In the first part of the paper I analyze how the sensory elements of slow living are represented in the Cittàslow and related Slow Food movement's literature. Then, based on my ethnographic fieldwork centered on Aylsham's Cittàslow events and projects, I examine how the routine and creative sensory practices of the individuals who produce and participate in Cittàslow policies and activities are constitutive of a “sensory city.”     

Synesthesia and Cross-Modality in Contemporary Audiovisuals

ABSTRACT

This paper considers contemporary practice in “fused” or transcoded audiovisual art, focusing on the work of Australian artists Robin Fox and Andrew Gadow. In this practice sound and image are tightly linked by a cross-wiring of media signals. Synesthesia is often invoked around such work, proposing a parallel between perceptual and technical cross-wiring. This synesthetic analogy provides a historical context as well as an analytic frame; it is tested here through a reading of relevant neuro- and perceptual science that illustrates some striking parallels. Ultimately, however, an alternative model is proposed based on cross-modal binding, where stimuli in different modalities are “bound” into correlated wholes. Understood as cross-modal objects, transcoded audiovisuals direct us to the signal that underpins both sound and image, as well as to the map, or domain of correlation, between modalities. The wider significance of this practice, it is argued, lies in its ability to provide an aesthetic and affective manifestation of these abstract structures—structures that are central to new media culture, but largely imperceptible.     

The Flesh and the World: Intercorporeal Body-selves,Ageing and Dancing

ABSTRACT

In this paper I address the role that embodiment, embodied consciousness and what can be termed “extradiscursive” experiences such as body memory and ekstasis as a form of ecstatic experience assume in understanding the body-self of mature dancers. I argue that the body-self of the dancer becomes increasingly intersubjective in maturity through her/his bodily practice, and that this can be understood in terms of the notions of intercorporeity, and of the “flesh” derived from the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty. I argue that ways of manifestation of intercorporeity in bodily experience are discursively elusive, drawing on two forms of bodily experience—body memory and ekstasis—and examining experiences narrated by mature dancers who were interviewed in my Ph. D. study on ageing, gender and dancers' bodies. I contend that the experience of ekstasis is the “glue” of a corporeal subjectivity that transforms itself through momentary identification with the world, that calls on the invisible as well as the visible. Body memory also challenges Western dualist conceptions of consciousness and bodily experience, and is more easily aligned with Eastern understandings of consciousness as embodied. Finally, I suggest that the concept of body memory is useful for imbuing the body-subject with a cohesion and authenticity through the body's capacity for nonconscious remembrance of movement through a proprioceptively stored “body history,” which enables the constitution of a coherent body-self in older age.     

Kurt Lewin's Leadership Studies and His Legacy to Social Psychology: Is There Nothing as Practical as a Good Theory?

This paper re‐examines Kurt Lewin's classic leadership studies, using them as a concrete example to explore his wider legacy to social psychology. Lewin distinguished between advanced “Galileian” science, which was based on analysing particular examples, and backward “Aristotelian” science, which used statistical analyses. Close examination of the way Lewin wrote about the leadership studies reveals that he used the sort of binary, value‐laden concepts that he criticised as “Aristotelian”. Such concepts, especially those of “democracy” and “autocracy”, affected the way that he analysed the results and the ways that later social scientists have understood, and misunderstood, the studies. It is argued that Lewin's famous motto—“there is nothing as practical as a good theory”—is too simple to fit the tensions between the leadership studies and his own views of what counts as good theory.     

A Transversal Lineage

ABSTRACT

This article proposes the term “perceptual abstraction” to describe the methods of artists who take bodily contingency as their medium. It focuses on the low-frequency drone work of an anonymous figure called Eleh. Like others in the Minimalist tradition, Eleh follows a processual ethic that begins from a minimum of structural elements and asks how they might reshape one another over time. What sets Eleh apart, however, is its singular focus on frequencies within, and sometimes beyond, the lowest reaches of human hearing. These tones play strangely on the sensorium because they can evade cochlear audition even while haunting other registers. This is bass as an agent of bodily mystification, and in Eleh's hands it becomes a sonic strategy for modulating felt space and fleshy thought. If Eleh diverges from most Minimalists in these ways, then liner notes and cover art point to another, more like-minded body of work. Might Op(tical) Art—with its interest in “charging fields” and rhythmically unraveling retinal perception—share at least as much with Eleh, at the level of affective strategy? If so, could we posit an alternate, transversal lineage of artistic practices defined not by form or tradition, but by a desire to confound perception, by whatever aesthetic and sensory routes?     

Rethinking the Soundscape

ABSTRACT

This article takes critical issue with the well-circulated but often misapplied term “soundscape.” Coined by Canadian composer Murray Schafer in his book “The Soundscape,” the term has become one of the keywords of sound studies, but in its wide circulation it has become disconnected from its original scholarly concept and used broadly to apply to nearly any sonic phenomenon. Scholars either misapply it or redefine it to suit their needs. This article is an attempt to trace an intellectual history or genealogy of the term, and to open a conversation about the term's use, application, and utility for scholars of sound. This article draws on Schafer's work in an attempt to ground the term in its own intellectual history, and then traces the use of the term in a variety of sound studies works. The term “soundscape” emerges as at once indispensable and elusive, provocative and limited. By calling attention to background sound, Schafer shaped the field in ways that exceeded his own contribution.     

Experiential design and religious publicity at D.C.’s Museum of the Bible

ABSTRACT

This article examines the sensory dimension of religious publicity, focused on the case of an evangelical museum in the United States. Washington D.C.’s Museum of the Bible (MOTB) was envisioned and funded primarily by conservative Protestants, and is a revealing case of religion in public life because most of the creative labor of design was conceived and executed by secular firms who do not typically work for faith-based clients. The professional expertise of these firms, “experiential design,” informs a sea change in contemporary museology and the expansion of the experience economy in late modernity. Ultimately, I argue that MOTB’s engagement with experiential design indexes the power of entertainment in late modern life, as the sensory repertoire at play operates with largely unquestioned legitimacy and presumed efficacy. By mobilizing the cultural capital of design, an evangelical museum makes a claim for diverse audiences in a deeply public setting.     

Sensuous (Re)Collections: The Sight and Taste of Socialism at Grūtas Statue Park,Lithuania

ABSTRACT

The present paper is about Grūtas, a Lithuanian park—museum featuring recuperated Soviet-era artifacts. This museum is examined as a locus of public memory where the nation's socialist history is invoked through visual representations (recovered statuary) and by implicating the sense of taste (“Soviet” drinks and dishes served at the museum's café). The paper suggests that seeing the Socialist past at Grūtas activates memories of trauma and loss, while tasting that past summons up more nostalgic reminiscences. It is further argued that this museum constitutes a visual and gustatory critique of Lithuania's increasingly commodified and “modernized” present. It is also proposed that collective memory in today's Eastern Europe affords a productive ethnographic site in which to investigate the ongoing systemic transformations in the aftermath of communist rule.