Sensory perception in cultural studies—a review of sensorial and multisensorial heritage

ABSTRACT

Following the “authorized heritage discourse” in heritage management, visual components have traditionally formed the basis of aesthetic value assessment of heritage assets. Despite being considered important by national legislation and international conventions, other sensory components have been comparatively under-researched and are generally ignored. No research to date has investigated the breadth and depth of these sensory components either individually nor in combination, and a synthesis of the extent and complexity of this intangible heritage is currently lacking. This literature review aims to examine these sensory heritage components in the human environment setting over the last 10 years. Of the 122 articles included in this literature review, the majority of research focused on only one individual sensory heritage component, generally the sense of sight or sound. For research investigating more than one sensory component, visual and aural components were again highly represented. Smell and touch components were comparatively under-researched, and there was a general paucity of multisensory heritage research and investigation of perceived heritage values. This review shows there is vast potential to push past the authorized heritage discourse, to revisit the current processes of heritage assessment and to rethink the constraints of visually centered heritage documentation and management.

KEYWORDS:

• Heritage authenticity
• heritage values
• intangible heritage
• multisensory heritage
• sensory components

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions which assisted in strengthening the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17458927.2023.2284532

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (Charles Sturt University)

Notes on contributors

Murray Parker

Murray Parker is a professional musician, specializing in percussion and timpani performance across many genres including film score, popular, orchestral, and historically informed early music. As a heritage professional, his research explores sensory and multisensory experience of the built environment with a particular interest in how sound may communicate meaning in different settings and the processes by which generated sounds may transform over time.

Dirk H. R. Spennemann

Dirk H. R. Spennemann researches and teaches Cultural Heritage Management and Environmental History and Historic Ecology with an emphasis on the Indo-Pacific Region. His current research foci are heritage theory, especially emerging technological heritage(s), the history and heritage of Punjabi immigrants during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; as well as the physical manifestation of human responses to the Indo-Pacific environment during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Jennifer Bond

Jen Bond is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, undertaking research within the spheres of human–wildlife conflict and agricultural development. Her work engages a range of methodologies to understand the links between humans and their environments with particular focus on conflict, social acceptability, and behavior change.