Originary Synaesthesia

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper reflects on Iris van der Tuin's reading of the connections between microagressions and contemporary feminist theory. In particular, I address van der Tuin's discussion of echolocation and mirror-touch synaesthesia as empirical instances of the material, ontological complexity of individuation. For van der Tuin, recent findings in the science of perception rework our understanding of microagressions beyond its routinely atomistic logic and the subject/object divide that underpins it. Importantly, echolocation's and mirror-touch synaesthesia's confounding of the interplay between biology and environment also offers interesting insights into the epistemological and methodological question of how to 'measure' or know an imperceptive sort of experience like microagressions.