In May 2025 I had the pleasure of representing the Goldsmiths Special Collections, and presenting at the inaugural Sensory History Conference, an engaging and thought provoking gathering of scholars exploring how the senses have shaped human experience across time. Held at UCL, the conference brought together historians, researchers, and practitioners from diverse fields to examine the role of sound, smell, touch, taste, and sight in archival contexts. A online experience was created for the Goldsmiths Textile Collection and presented at the conference, it is available on spatial.io .

The conference was intellectually stimulating and refreshingly interdisciplinary. Speakers addressed topics ranging from the multisensory experience of historical spaces, such as Jorvik’s Smells presented by Dr. Will Tullett, to innovative approaches in digital heritage. A particularly memorable panel explored the role of video games in sensory storytelling, featuring papers such as A Guide’s Guide to Guiding and Sensory Histories of Environmental Injustice. Incorporating, music, romance, smell, sound, touch, taste, memory and so many more senses.

Including sound experiment, a workshop and papers throughout the day delved into a rich variety of themes, including a Calypso Writing with Alexander D Great; where we collaboratively created a songs about the 2012 London Olympics, the use of ASMR to give voice to people with complex needs; where we explored sounds and archival object as engagement techniques, the use of smell to create immersive historical experiences; contemplating how engaging a wider variety of senses creates more inclusive, memorable and accessible interactions and the interplay between the senses and consumer culture in The History of Love; where we explored music and poetry of historical bards in comparison to the modern commodification of love and romance. Listening stations offered immersive experiences, such as Sensory Storytelling in Illustrated Autism Narratives, Multi-sensory Music, and the reflection on social media sounds and nostalgia.

Sessions such as Tender Traces and Quiet Persistence in Post-Franco Spain and Olfactory Sinophobia further demonstrated the conference’s commitment to examining sensory histories from global and intersectional perspectives. The event concluded on the first day with a vibrant performance by Alexander D Great and a paper on AI generated folk voices as a form of creative practice to write the women and children of the Cromford cotton mills back into history, providing a fitting end to a conference which celebrated both scholarly insight and creative expression.

The sensory lens humanises historical narratives, challenges us to consider the sensory elements within historical records. What stood out most throughout the conference was the emphasis on embodied knowledge and user expectation. Utilising the human nervous system as an interface for my embossed interactions; exploring how historical subjects are perceived and used to make sense of the world.

As part of the conference, I presented an artistic XR (Extended Reality) response to two items from the Goldsmiths Textiles collection, exploring how immersive technologies can reframe our sensory engagement with historical objects. Angeletti et al. (2024)  eloquently summarise that  “The collective body of significant clothes, accessories, and textiles that holds cultural, artistic, and historical value constitutes, today, an important part of museum collections…,” (p. 1) The XR experience focused on lingerie to draw on the intimate personal and unique sociocultural elements attached to intimate apparel. The main aims of the project where:

1. To Explore opportunities for sensory transference through engagements with artist digitised archival materials.
2. To Examine the immersive capabilities of multimodal sensory transference using emergent and developing technologies.
3. To Comparatively juxtapose impossible materialised experiences with material mimicry of archival textile objects.

Artistic interpretation, especially when combined with modern technologies, enables immersive experiences that as well as aiding in the promotion, accessibility, preservation and synthesisation of heritage sites and artifacts. Much of the current research around this methodology reflects on the authenticity of the outputs (Kryvuts et al., 2021; Marra et al., 2021 and Morin, 1999). Though Morin (1999) highlights that “… creative preservation is a contradiction …” (p. 194) as we are essentially creating new things in the aim of to preserving the original. But the digital outputs are not replacements or alternatives they are tools aimed at improved preservation and access  through embracing developing technologies. These methods allow for both in-situ and museum-based visual research, making heritage more accessible and engaging for the public.

Through my work, I aimed to evoke the tactile experiences using visuals, sounds and haptic feedback. The project drew on the embodied meanings embedded in the items to produce an alternative form of historical interpretation grounded in sensory experience. Creating what Marra et al. (2021) defines as “Historic Digital Twin (HDT)” (p. 2) to sit alongside images of the garments and an animated artistic interpretation twin (AIT). Dynamic Artistic Interpretation: Animated VR representations capture the movement, texture, and craftsmanship of textiles, offering new artistic perspectives and insights into the creative processes behind traditional garments. This project explored sensory augmentation in combination with simulated fashion, combining garments from the Goldsmiths textiles collection, documents from the Marks and Spencer’s Archives and the Leicester Records Office to add context and confirm dates surrounding the items. It utilised interdisciplinary exploratory art research methods resulting in an online gamified XR experience which explored the intersection of digital fashion, sensory experiences, and imagined experiences. The two items were a Patterned nylon chemise c.1960, (ref. TC.M.6494) and a Jersey ‘ combination’ Unitard c.1900 (ref. TC.M.4440). As well as the use of auditory, visual animation, haptic feedback and aesthetic techniques to enhance and make the experience more memorable the space also include web links to the archives explored as part of this work.

The patterns marks and Spencer’s chemise from around the 1960, from their St Michael’s features  shades of blue, white and purple in splotch design with white lace edging along hem and neck edge, and lilac Rouleau straps. In the AIT particle effects, adulating textures, lighting and water audio were added to reflect on the creative expression and my personal perception of the watery pattern from my time cataloguing the chemise.

[Extract from item description ] “A 1970s lilac/mauve M&S full length slip, a present from my aunt between 1972–1975 sent out to me when I was living in Cape Town where in those days it wasn’t possible to get such ‘modern’ stuff” Madeline Dobson”

For the jersey suit I incorporated sewing and weaving sounds to reflect on the industrious history of production and intimate apparel in Leicester. Incorporating particle effects and moving textures to reflect the knitting and weaving process that would have let to the garments creation.

[Extract from item description ] “Ladies R.Morleys and Sons unitard ‘combinations’  c.1900, feature an open gusset, made from a cotton jersey, from Leicester donated by the Leicestershire women’s institute”

Attending and  being part of the Sensory History Conference was an enriching experience that expanded my appreciation for the diverse sensory opportunities that can be married with archival research. Affirming the value of looking beyond the written word to engage more fully with the textures, sounds, and sensations of the past.

The experience is available live through on spatial.io and the project and code and can be viewed on requested from the special collections and archives. Created for the Goldsmiths Textile Collection, who hold the copyright for the objects and cataloguing information. Additional archival material and information were generously provided by the Leicester Records Office and the Marks & Spencer Archive, with material courtesy of Marks and Spencer Ltd.

Text and online experience by Shanique Thompson

References:

• Angeletti, E. et al. (2024) ‘Beyond the physical exhibit: Enhancing, showcasing and safeguarding fashion heritage with VR technologies’, Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 32, p. e00314. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2023.e00314.
• Kryvuts, S. et al. (2021) ‘The Phenomenon of Digital Art as a Means of Preservation of Cultural Heritage Works’, Muzeológia a kultúrne dedičstvo, 9(1), pp. 145–156. Available at: https://doi.org/10.46284/mkd.2021.9.1.9.
• Marra, A. et al. (2021) ‘Combining Integrated Informative System and Historical Digital Twin for Maintenance and Preservation of Artistic Assets’, Sensors, 21(17), p. 5956. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/s21175956.
• Morin, R. (1999) ‘Creative preservation: The development of an artistic approach to the preservation and presentation of the past’, Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, 3(4), pp. 191–201. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1179/135050399793138509.

Bibliography:

• Lutz, D./ S. (2022) A Digital Fashion House Partners With Meta. Should We Celebrate or Mourn?, Decrypt. Available at: https://decrypt.co/106055/a-digital-fashion-house-partners-with-meta-should-we-celebrate-or-mourn (Accessed: 31 March 2023).
• Smith, J.A. and England, C. (2019) ‘An ethnographic study of culture and performance in the UK lingerie industry’, British Accounting Review, 51(3). Available at: https://doi.org/S0890838919300216.
• Dias, J. et al. (2022) ‘Augmented Reality Based Virtual Dressing Room Using Unity3D’. Rochester, NY. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4111818.
• McDougal, H. (2007) ‘Cabinet of Wonders: Merkins and Kotekas and Codpieces, Oh My!’, Cabinet of Wonders, 12 October. Available at: http://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.com/2007/10/merkins-and-kotekas-and-codpieces-oh-my.html (Accessed: 26 November 2021).
• Smith, B.C. (2016) ‘Aristotle was wrong and so are we: there are far more than five senses | Aeon Videos’. Available at: https://aeon.co/videos/aristotle-was-wrong-and-so-are-we-there-are-far-more-than-five-senses (Accessed: 28 February 2023).
• Spampinato, F. (2016) ‘Body Surrogates’, The MIT Press on behalf of Performing Arts Journal, Inc, 38(2), pp. 1–20. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/26386786.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Adadd5a8203eb082ef432c4e33147bd63&ab_segments=&origin=&initiator=&acceptTC=1.
• ‘Cyberspace, n.’ (2023) OED Online. Available at: https://www.oed.com/start;jsessionid=D2EBE2B63EA502DB709CCB57A60C6BE1?authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F240849%3FredirectedFrom%3Dcyberspace (Accessed: 27 February 2023).
• Haptic System Creates Finger-Touch Sensations Hardware-Free​ (2023) ieeespectrum. Available at: https://spectrum.ieee.org/finger-haptics (Accessed: 24 April 2023).
• Jenss, H. and Hofmann, V. (2019) Fashion and Materiality: Cultural Practices in Global Contexts. Bloomsbury.
• Papetti, S. and Saitis, C. (eds) (2018) Musical Haptics. 1st ed. 2018. Cham: Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer (Springer Series on Touch and Haptic Systems).