Lindsay Kelley, Australian National University School of Art & Design;
How do sensory experiences contribute to climate action and inaction? What happens when Haraway's 'planetary survival' meets methods inspired by 'sensory ethnography' (Pink 2009; Howes and Classen 2014)? Food and sensory studies approaches to cultural identity formation have shown how industries with significant climate impact such as agriculture and aquaculture can be understood through everyday activities of eating and drinking. From Diet for a Small Planet (Lappé 1971) to the rise in sustainable agriculture and plant-based meat substitutes, climate crisis informs every snack, drink, and meal. Sensory studies of shave ice (Hobart 2022), coffee (Liberman 2022), wine (Vannini et al. 2010), and everything from MSG (Tracy 2018) to the thermoception of tacos (Lara 2015) follow taste as a specific research object. Informed by Lindsay Kelley's work developing 'participatory taste workshops,' this panel invites tiny workshops that engage sensory methods in solidarity with specific ecologies in Hawai'i as well as workshops designed to illuminate planetary circuits that touch shared seas, skies, and lands. In the spirit of a more expansive social and environmental justice conversation, we seek submissions that queer the traditional paper presentation by offering sensory, creative provocations which embody the research and engage crossmodal methods. All senses welcome.
