The hierarchy of the
senses
Sight is commonly said to be the most developed and complex
sense in human perception, closely followed by hearing. For
many years cognition, knowledge and divinity has been
associated with especially vision and light. We are
”insightful” or “illuminated”.
Seeing and hearing represent the so-called remote senses,
cut off from the materiality of the world. Some claim this
is why eyes and ears are placed in the upper part of the
head, closest to the brain - or to God. Further down the
ladder the nose, mouth and hand represent the profane and
more private senses of smell, taste and touch.
Recent research has unfolded the sensorial system as a much
more complex and rhizomatic event sensitive to contextual
factors.
Mix and match! Add to perception and map the human senses
as a matter of physical, spiritual, social, conventional
and geographical intertwining. Challenge the hierarchy of
the senses, erode the “point of view”, turn upside down,
and then left to travel the detour.
The five senses
I am absolutely sure that it was the taste of the foreign
food that made us more open to the new society. When they
tore down the beloved, Soviet buildings I remember the
sound and smell of demolishing. I remember the sight of how
the urban surface crashed. But it was the taste of the food
in the new restaurants they built that opened my eyes to
the diversity of the world.
The sense of beyond
I am certain that the church space brings me closer to God.
I can see the altar illuminated at the end of the aisle and
hear the voices of the choir.
All images of profane creatures peeing and pooing are
hidden behind the whitened walls.
My body feels light and immaterial.
The sense of value
I am absolutely convinced that my sense of moral is located
just below the upper gut, in a specific area of the
stomach.
Yesterday’s supper, spinach and goat cheese, is passing
through the area of this intelligent, gut feeling as we
speak.
Sense no. 9: Proprioception
I can tell for a fact that
although I close my eyes and lower my immediate senses, I
can still feel the presence and position of my hand when I
wave it back and forth in the air.
That’s what I focused on when you approached me on the pier
in March. Body functions.
The
sense of echolocation
I feel absolutely part of animal
behaviour when I navigate through the streets of
Copenhagen. Like a dolphin, I understand the echoes caused
by the tapping of my blind man’s stick. First, the sound
from the tables at the inn, then the stones on the
graveyard, and finally the benches in the hospice.
Sounds waving from the eye on my wooden
finger.
The
sixth sense
I have every right to claim this apparition as a real and
bodily presence in space. I feel it as much as I feel your
hand on my skin. Cross my heart and hope to die.