Sensory transformations - SENSOTRA

Transgenerational Environmental Relationships in Europe, 1950-2020.

SENSOTRA was a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant funded project. The project produced new understandings of the changes in people’s sensory environmental relationships in three European cities during a particular period in history, 1950–2020.

It offered a focused window on cultural transformations of the sensory by introducing a new transgenerational methodology, ethnographic “sensobiography”. Ethnographic research was conducted on generations born in the 1930s and 1940s—those who grew up before the digital age—as well as on digital natives born into a world of smart devices, where maintaining complex environmental relationships presents new challenges. The project facilitated a significant step from earlier methodologies toward large-scale, multisensory, transgenerational investigation, providing significant insights into culture with a sustainable future.

The project’s three research strands were: transformations in mediations of sensory experience, embodied remembering and senses, and sensory commons.

The project was carried out in collaboration with artists from various disciplines and was the most extensive empirical study of sensory environmental experiences to date. It was conducted in three medium-sized European cities: Ljubljana (Slovenia), Turku (Finland), and Brighton (United Kingdom).

1950-2020年欧洲跨代感官环境关系研究。
SENSOTRA是一项由欧洲研究委员会（European Research Council, ERC）高级资助计划支持的研究项目。本项目针对1950至2020年这一特定历史时期内，三座欧洲城市中民众的感官环境关系变迁展开研究，形成了全新的学术认知。
本项目通过引入全新的跨代研究方法——民族志"感官传记"（sensobiography），为探究感官维度的文化变迁提供了精准的观察窗口。研究对象涵盖出生于20世纪30、40年代、成长于数字时代之前的群体，以及成长于智能设备普及世界中的数字原住民群体；后者在维系复杂环境关系时面临着全新挑战。本项目实现了从早期研究方法向大规模、多感官、跨代研究的关键跨越，为面向可持续未来的文化研究提供了重要学术洞见。
本项目下设三大研究方向：感官体验中介的变迁、具身记忆与感官研究，以及感官公共域（sensory commons）。
本项目联合多学科艺术家共同开展，是迄今为止规模最大的感官环境体验实证研究。研究选取欧洲三座中等规模城市开展：斯洛文尼亚的卢布尔雅那、芬兰的图尔库，以及英国的布莱顿。