Sensing the World
This essay is a study in the normalization of perception in modernity centring on the material and juridical construction of the built environment. It begins with an analysis of the sensory ambiance of the skyscraper and the bungalow and their impact on the formation of the subjectivities of those who dwell within them. It goes on to consider the problem of excessive sensation—that is, the unwanted sounds and smells and other effluvia which are an inevitable by-product of living together in society in ever-greater concentrations. What are the limits of toleration? How does the law intervene in the management of the sensible? These questions are explored with particular reference to the notion of the “obligations of neighbourliness” in the civil law jurisdiction of Quebec. It is concluded that any account of the perception of the environment must be attuned to the normalization of sense experience within a particular sensory regime—or, the indissociability of the social, the material and the sensible.