refers to the intricate interrelationships between our senses and the world we inhabit. It begins with how our bodies engage with environments, whether constructed or natural, how phenomena intersect, and how these experiences shape our sense of connectedness, curiosity, wonder and ultimately, wellbeing.
This concept is anchored in subjectivity and intangibility because life itself is subjective, fluid, and unbounded. Tim Ingold’s theory of the Meshwork in ecological anthropology comes to mind. Ingold (p.63) describes the Meshwork as “entangled lines of life, growth and movement […] the world we inhabit. [It is] not a network of connected points, but a meshwork of interwoven lines.”
Drawing on Anne-Marie Willis (2006) and Arturo Escobar (2018) and their discussions of ontological designing, Sensory Ecologies recognises that whenever we create a space, product, system, story, or event, we are simultaneously shaping ways of being in the world. My focus is on exploring this interdependence to understand how design can foster richer, more rewarding modes of existence, cultivating processes that are not merely functional but inclusive, welcoming, joyful, and full of possibility. Everyday life should feel connected and sustaining but, as Kevin Twaites (2018, p.157) highlights, we are often “hindered by a prevailing failure to recognize the intrinsic connectivity of bodily experience and thinking processes in human-environment relations.” He emphasises the limitations of the separation of rational and emotional experience and a professional loss of connection with the human body in design decision-making.
In Sensory Ecologies, the term ‘ecologies’ frames the human body as an organism within its environment by borrowing from Jakob von Uexküll’s theory of Umwelt. Umwelt refers to the subjective world of an organism (Kull 2001, p.7) and different organisms perceive and enact the same ‘objective’ world differently depending on their sensory capacities (Mallgrave, 2018 p.44). While von Uexküll approached this from ethology (a branch of biology that studies animal behaviour), the concept applies equally to humans, who relate to their physical environment, and to other human and non-human organisms, subjectively through the senses. The plural form, ecologies, reflects this diversity of experience.
This site brings together a collection of studies that share common lines of enquiry:
• How can we capture interrelations between the sensory-emotional body and its environment?
• How can we design environments that invite both stimulation and comfort, supporting life, diversity, and connectedness?
Future work will expand these studies, particularly by incorporating more-than-human perspectives. This means exploring entanglements between sensing bodies and natural environments and acknowledging that our actions impact other-than-human organisms and their habitats. It is still about creating environments that sustain life but by asking whose life we can become more sensitive to the natural world beyond our own human interests. To be continued...
References
Escobar, A. (2018) Designs for the Pluriverse. Radical Independence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Ingold , T. (2011) Being Alive. Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description. London and New York: Routledge.
Kull, K. (2001) 'Jakob von Uexkull: An introduction', Semiotica, 134(1/4), pp. 1-59.
Mallgrave, H. F. (2018) From Object to Experience. The New Culture of Architectural Design. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
Twaites, K. (2018) Smell Learning Environments. Introduction. In Henshaw V., McLean K, Medway D., Perkins D., Warnaby, G. Designing with Smell: practices, techniques and challenges. New York and Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Von Uexküll, J. (2001) 'An introduction to Umwelt', Semiotica, 134(1/4), pp. 107-110.
Willis, A-M (2006) ‘Ontological Designing’, Design Philosophy Papers, 4.