21 SENSE 

Published: Spring 2025 

More and more technologies are being created to sense our environment, and much is being learned about how animals and plants sense theirs. We often think of these tools as extending our capacity for sensing what is not available through natural human perception. But what is “natural” about human perception? Not as much as was once believed, it turns out. Many of the contributors to LA+ SENSE consider how our senses have become naturalized and our bodies and experiences standardized. Topics also include sense and surveillance, sense of place, and whether we should trust our senses at all. Edited by Karen M’Closkey, contributors include Elena Abbiatici, Sarah Coleman, Tim Cresswell, Lisa Yin Han, Ai Hisano, David Howes, Mark Kingwell, Jia Hui Lee, Gascia Ouzounian, Kris Paulsen, Sally Pusede, Erin Putalik, Douglas Robb, Chris Salter, Alexa Vaughn, Alexa Weik von Mossner, and Mark Peter Wright.

Mark Kingwell

Sarah Coleman

Ai Hisano

Jia Hui Lee

Elena Giulia Abbiatici

Lisa Yin Han

Douglas Robb

Karen M’Closkey

David Howes

Erin Putalik + Sally Pusede

Chris Salter

Alexa Vaughn

Gascia Ouzounian

Tim Cresswell

Alexa Weik von Mossner

Kris Paulsen

“Sense-Certainty, Identity, and the Reality Paradox”

“Tasting the Cure”

“Color of Nature: Capitalism-Trained Eyes and the Visual Appetite”

“Olfactory Sublime”

“Smell of Surveillance”

“Aquatic Living Sensors and the Making of Common Sense”

“Listening to Landscape”

“In Conversation with Mark Peter Wright”

“Sensescapes”

“Sense of Smog”  

“Sensorimotor Acts”

“Deaf Experience: Beyond ADA Standards”

“Audible Cartographies of Power” 

“Senses of Place” 

“Sensing Imaginary Landscapes”

“Martian Timeslips”