This article presents a poetic photo-essay about the Sensory Laboratory, a facility of the extension project Expression and Transformation attached to the Institute of Psychology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (UFRJ). Inspired by Phenomenology and Contemporary Art, the laboratory is a proposal for body awareness aimed at denaturalizing perception and automated everyday modes of being in the world. Participants are invited to wear a blindfold and conducted through a series of sensory stimulations where they experience different textures, odors, and sounds in temporalities that are different to those of everyday life. Their experiences are then depicted in body maps. The findings show that the participants’ experiences expand self and other-awareness, vivifying a poetic power of expression and body memories. Originating from Clinical Psychology, this proposal converges towards other disciplines and languages, articulating ethical, aesthetic, political, and existential dimensions.
Body; Art; Clinical; Phenomenology; Gestalt therapy
