Many of us are wondering what we can do to bring about changes in our society to fight and adapt to the environmental changes underway.

Personally, I think there’s something to be said for putting more sensibility into our lives. Who hasn’t felt like a brain for a whole day : plugged into a computer screen, talking on videoconference, chatting on chat, working on e-mails ?

Wouldn’t making our five senses more vibrant help us to be more regularly aware of being part of the living and part of nature ? And wouldn’t this awareness be the key to realizing that we must live in harmony with the natural world of which we are a part ?

Where are you with your five senses ?

As far as I’m concerned, I reconnect with my senses when I’m out in nature, of course, but also thanks to art, which I find is an extraordinary way of reminding us of our sensations and our belonging to the living world when we live in an urban environment where nature is too small and policed to remind us how big the world is outside our cities.

Many of us are unable to immerse ourselves in nature on a daily basis, or to keep it constantly in mind, surrounded as we are by ourselves in our activities and constructions. And this trend is set to intensify as more and more of humanity lives in cities, and big cities at that, from which it will take longer and longer to get out. So by all means, we need to keep in touch with the living, to bring it into our walls, and art is, I think, one means, among others.

The visual arts make us see beauty, strangeness and mystery. They allow us to sublimate the lines of landscapes, the light of the sky and the earth, the thousand and one colors of plants and animals. They often provoke a pause to look with astonished and attentive eyes at what we no longer see. This sense of sight, eroded by our image-based society, becomes once again an essential skill to marvel at.

Music reminds us of the extent to which our hearing connects us to the living. When silence creates a feeling of insecurity, when city noise creates a feeling of discomfort, music envelops and reassures us. Music makes us feel good. Just as we feel good listening to the raindrops hitting the stones, the wind rustling the foliage, the birds singing or the sea kissing the beach. We close our eyes and let ourselves be carried away into an auditory universe where every sound tells us that life is pulsating around us.

For the sense of smell and taste, I would cite the arts of the table, which transcend the smells of land, sea and plants, and the infinite tastes of all that is eaten. For my part, when I taste a dish whose flavors are subtly interwoven by an artist of the kitchen, the intellect stops, it’s the body that vibrates, that rediscovers an animal connection with what it eats. Who hasn’t opened or closed their eyes, let out a little cry or a sigh while eating or drinking something? We forget ourselves, we’re just there, in the sensation of nature nourishing us. Flavors and smells are sensations that transport us to the heart of plants, spices and flowers, in contact with the earth, minerals and the sea, at the most intimate level with animals and the elements.

As for touch, I know of no art that bridges the gap to what we feel when we caress the bark of a tree, walk barefoot in the sand, feel the wind glide over our skin, share the warmth of an animal. We should be able to touch the installations, caress the sculptures. This is sometimes the case, but it’s not very widespread.

So for a broader awareness of the living world, let’s surround ourselves with art and culture. Let’s put it in offices and streets, in schools and hospitals, in industrial sites and transport facilities. Wherever functionality and rationality reign supreme, let’s add sensibility, not to distract, but to keep us alive.

See you soon.

Lucile 

PS : You can find previous articles here.

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