Sensing Asymmetries in Other-than-human Forms. (September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Howe, Cymene
• Other Names: Gabrys Jennifer guest-editor.; Pritchard Helen guest-editor.; Houston Lara guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Science, technology, & human values. Volume 44:Number 5(2019:Sep.)
• Page Start: 900
• Page End: 910
• Publication Date: 2019-09
• Subjects: Anthropocene -- environment -- sensing -- futures -- alternative life forms -- climate change; Science -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Technology -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Humanities -- Periodicals; 303.48305
• DOI: 10.1177/0162243919852675
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0162-2439

Abstract

This essay is an examination of how sensing capacities can draw in, and from, other-than-human entities—both animate and inanimate. Based upon ethnographic field research in Iceland, it describes sensory encounters that are realizable through the bodies, sensations, and ontological status shifts of other beings and entities, namely, in bears and ice and earth. As anthropogenic impacts deepen, the essay argues, sensing ought to be practiced as a collaborative effort among human and other-than-human entities. Sensing by other means entails sensing through others' means and beyond the human sensorium.