Multisensory Landscapes

Before the beginning of the 20th century, non-visual stimuli were certainly given a great deal of attention in the spatial sciences (Faure 1993). In the 20th century, concern with - more easily measurable - visual stimuli gained importance, which is also brought to bear by the use of visual metaphors, such as that "scientists see the world 'through particular glasses', that they have biases that 'distort' their 'view' of an object, that they 'interpret' the procurement of the world with their 'worldviews', 'paradigms', 'conceptions' or 'categories'" (Latour 2002 [1999], S. 165). The differentiation of theoretical perspectives on landscape that has taken place in recent decades also facilitates a differentiated approach to landscape phenomena, beyond the visual. For example, a social constructivist approach to the social world foregrounds the processes of negotiating social 'realities'; this need not be limited to visual aspects (Berger und Luckmann 1966) and is not based on a clear physical measurability with accompanying purely quantitative recording. A phenomenological approach places the synesthetic experience of landscape at the center of interest. The approach to the topic of multisensory via 'landscape' is obvious for several reasons: firstly, landscape is created (from a constructivist perspective) through the synthesis of sensory impressions on the basis of social patterns of interpretation and evaluation; secondly, communication about 'landscape' is also accessible to people who do not have any 'expert-like special knowledge' in this regard; thirdly, 'landscape' as a changing concept is not only a concept of 'landscape', but also of 'landscape'. (Kühne 2020) thirdly, 'landscape' as a changeable concept is particularly suited to (Schein 1997) is particularly suitable for conceptually framing the mostly highly fleeting non-visual stimuli.