Sensory Ethnography Workshop

Sensory knowledge has long been studied in the social sciences, and more recently, building primarily upon the advances made by visual anthropologists, sensory methodologies have gained more traction and articulation.

This workshop, presented by Anna from an invitation by Tessa Diphoorm (ARMES ERC project, Utrecht University), aimed to introduce doctoral students to established and more experimental sensory methods that can be potentially incorporated into their research projects.

After a general introduction that contextualised sensory methods, the students worked with a smaller scale intervention called sensory probes, ideal for breaking research habits, working in teams, and opening up hard-to-access aspects of a study. Furtheremore, they discussed the sensory methods that can be incorporated more systematically in projects, such as object interviews, sensory mapping or sensory approaches to sharing research findings, such as multimodal storytelling, bookmaking, and pop-up exhibitions.