See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception

Feature • book • 2011

Did you know that we can see with our tongue? Or that we can plug our nervous system directly into a computer? With cybernetics, prosthetics, robotics, nanotechnology and neuroscience altering the way we perceive and experience space, the body has re-emerged as an important architectural site, revealing its astonishing potential as a creative medium. See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception is an explosive and unique survey that captures the fascinating relationship between design, the body, the senses, and technology. A timely discussion with cutting-edge design, See Yourself Sensing examines work from the last 50 years by artists, architects and designers who have been experimenting with the boundaries of our senses, changing the way we experience the world. The book explores the work of both established and upcoming artists, including internet sensation Daito Manabe, Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee, Lawrence Malstaf and collectives such as realities:united and Viennese-based Gelitin, and figures of worldwide acclaim, such as Ann Hamilton, Ernesto Neto, Carsten Höller, Olafur Eliasson and Rebecca Horn.

(…) Are instincts a thing of the past? It used to be that we relied on them for survival. However with the help of technology we have managed to create a highly industrialised environment that grants our survival without the need to rely on our instincts. In fact we no longer have a clear sense what endangers us. Statistics show that we are misguided in our fears. We worry about terrorism when the chances of encountering are slim, and we are unconcerned with other facts — that cars represent an enormous threat. (…) Time to get our instincts back into shape. To do this, Susanna Hertrich has created a series of conditioning devices – prosthetics for a lost natural instinct – that consists of controlled machines that stimulate the body.

Madeline Schwartzman

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See Yourself Sensing. Redefining Human Perception, Madeline Schwartzman, Black Dog Publishing, London, 2011
Paperback, 28 × 23 cm | 9 × 11 in, 192 pages
ISBN 978-1-907317-29-3

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