In this project, the depiction of sense perceptions in contemporary literature and film is analyzed and discussed. What characterizes this depiction? How does it relate to scientific, philosophical, and cultural knowledge and theories about the senses and their functions? The ultimate aim of the study is to shed light on the question of whether any specific knowledge about human sense perceptions is generated in literature and film. Can these aesthetic and fictional expressions, due to their unique abilities of depiction, teach us anything about sense perceptions that is inaccessible to the natural sciences?
The project consists of four different studies. In general terms, the first study is on pain and deals with the experience of maximal sense perception, while the second study is on the idea of compensatory senses and deals with what happens in the absence of sense perceptions. The third study is on what is specifically human about our senses, and it expands the perspective beyond the human horizon. Finally, the forth study is on amnesiac flashbacks and it directs the focus inwards; towards processes in the human consciousness/brain. Common for all the four studies is that they deal with border territories of human sensory experience. The reason for this is that in these areas the senses and their possibilities and limitations are put to the test. This makes these areas especially productive to study in order to gain new knowledge about the senses and their functions.