Sensing the pandemic: revealing and re-ordering the senses

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article reviews an assembled archive of the literature published to date on the sensory dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as sensory scholars have often highlighted periods of sensory revolution, we find that the recent pandemic has augured some notable shifts, albeit often on the more micro and domestic scale. We present a five-sense sensorium that offers an overview of how the senses have been engaged with by scholars during the pandemic, and what the major issues and themes have been. Drawing on the literature, we suggest that there have been shifts in our sensate experiences and an increased awareness of the sensory dimensions of daily life that may usually go unnoticed. However, we also note the many sensory-related inequalities have been revealed over this period, which continue to unfold unevenly as the pandemic continues. We argue that going forward sensory scholars ought to attend to these questions of inequality, as well as tracking the possible undoing of some of the sensory revolutions that may have taken place so far.