Technoscience, Aesthetics, and the Senses - II

Abstract

STS has thus far not developed a cohesive position on the role of aesthetic sensibilities in our engagement with facts and artefacts. Although subjective considerations of style, taste, and fashion and their embodied discernment are clearly relevant in the practices of natural scientists, engineers, doctors, and industrial designers, the role of such judgements in technoscience remains undertheorised. Subjectivity has, nevertheless, long been mobilised in STS as a means of problematizing notions of objectivity, rationality, and functionality. A number of studies in STS have recently begun to empirically examine the role of intersubjectivity in oenology (Shapin, 2016), aesthetic publics (Michael, 2018), and artistic practices in synthetic biology (Calvert and Schyfter, 2017), but the relationship between technoscientific innovation, sensory skills, and aesthetic judgment remains elusive.

This panel seeks to understand the co-construction of technoscientific practices and aesthetic sensibilities. How might the reciprocal relationship between technoscience and the traditionally recognised senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) as well as other sensory modalities such as, among others, proprioception, balance, pain, and hunger be understood? How does, for example, the visual language of digital technologies shape what is considered a beautiful face or delicious food; how are algorithms used to capture and reproduce new aesthetic categories in online media; how are notions of aesthetic craft involved in practices as diverse as software coding, reconstructive surgery, restaurant menus, as well as numerous other everyday practices and tasks.

This panel encourages experimental forms of presentation that go beyond the conventional paper and PowerPoint format.

Individual Presentations

• Making Sense of Values: Tasting and the Naturecultures of Speciality Coffee Markets - Derly Sanchez, Universidad del Rosario

• Tasting Technoscience: The Language of the Kitchen in Silicon Valley - Anna Nguyen, Institut national de la recherche scientifique

• Technique on Fleek: Digital Beauty Practices in the Age of Instagram - Chris Hesselbein, Cornell University STS

• “Objectifying the Face”: Visualization Technologies and Doctor-Patient Communication in Cosmetic Surgery - Alka Menon, Yale University

Session Organizer

• Chris Hesselbein, Cornell University STS