Experiencing Silence and Expanded Time; Other Sensory Pathways and Knowledge

In this contemporary era of acceleration and proliferation of information we are immersed in a world of continuous interruptions and sensory over-stimulation. To cultivate other spaces in order to disconnect from our daily habitus has become a challenge; silence and time are now considered as rare and luxurious. In counterpoint we can witness the emergence and the integration of “slow” practices in different professional fields and everyday life. How can we attend and experience spaces of silence and attention, expanding the feeling of time as potentialities to others sensory and perceptive pathways to work from? This session wants to highlight the senses embedded in contemporary or traditional practices in contrast with a world infused by speed and data as well as diverse approaches operating in counterpoint to hegemonic ways of doing and sensing. How can we create new sensory relations and intensities involving specific qualities of attention? How can we expand our sensory experience to remap notions of “in depth quality” versus quantity in terms of sensory information? How does slowing down involve new “ways of doing” while opening up new insights and possible transformation? We invite participants interested in sharing their engagement in practices and studies ranging from the everyday life to embodied and artistic approaches, including ecological, trans-cultural and trans-disciplinary perspectives; on the potentialities of the senses as generator of states of presence, perceptions, imagination, “ways of being” while interacting with others, the "more-than-human" and/or our surroundings in order to unfold new sensory experiences and knowledge.