Smelling and tasting are believing : a studio inquiry into an intersensorial practice

In this thesis I sought to explore an intersensorial connection with my studio and art teaching practice through a studio-based inquiry by asking how can I utilize the senses of taste and smell in my studio practice in the visual arts? The question was first explored by focusing on certain physiological and psychological functions of our gustatory and olfactory senses and their link to memory and secondly by looking to literature within cultural studies, philosophies of art and art practices. This literature suggests that there is a growing acknowledgement of an intersensory way of knowing, yet its potential in the art classroom is still largely untapped. I chose to answer my question through a heuristic methodology by drawing from the research findings, personal observations, dialogues and experiences on taste and smell, memory and perception. The methodology was used to answer my question through a creative synthesis in four installations linking the two senses and memory and perception. Although I deem the installations as personally successful, I discovered that my personal aesthetic is largely based on pattern and order, which could both hinder and help in my teaching of an intersensorial practice. Teaching toward sensory awareness in a literate, visually oriented society may need to begin with a corporeal re-connection with and re cognition of our environment. Through the recognition of the "aesthetics of the everyday" such suggestions and implications for the art classroom are discusse