Sensing the Future in the Anthropocene: Multisensory Artworks and Climate Change

Agata Stronciwilk

doi:10.18290/rkult24151.5

Published : 2024-03-29

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2024)

Sensing the Future in the Anthropocene: Multisensory Artworks and Climate Change

Agata Stronciwilk

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8123-3839

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rkult24151.5

Abstract

The article analyzes artworks by Dagna Jakubowska, Diana Lelonek, and Peter de Cupere in the context of sensory perception and environmental engagement. The analyzed projects propose various speculative narratives and sensory stimuli that allow the audience to have an embodied experience of those narratives. Artists encourage us to listen to the melting glaciers, taste the dishes of the apocalyptic future or smell the polluted air in order to materialize the vision of climate change, which for some still remains an abstract concept rather than an ongoing reality. The empirical sensory experiences become arguments in the discussions about the anthropogenic roots of climate change. The article examines the role of senses and art in breaching the gap between scientific evidence and everyday experience regarding climate change.

Keywords:

art, senses, Dagna Jakubowska, Peter de Cupere, Diana Lelonek

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Agata Stronciwilk

agata.stronciwilk@us.edu.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8123-3839

Affiliation:

University of Silesia in Katowice Poland

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

Information about the Author: Agata Stronciwilk, PhD, is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Art Studies, University of Silesia in Katowice. She was awarded a Fulbright Slavic Award for the year 2022/2023 (University of Washington, Seattle); she also received a scholarship at the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton (Canada). In her research, she concentrates on sensory perception and food motifs in contemporary art.