SENSEmaking: A Symposium on Contemplative Technologies
Overview by Michael Overstreet
SENSEmaking: A Symposium on Contemplative Technologies was held by the Contemplative Sciences Center and its Contemplative Innovation + Research Co-Lab (CIRCL) on October 9 and 10. Contemplative practices in esoteric and religious traditions have long sought to explore the horizon of human cognition and sensorium. How can these traditions inform the ways we make sense of our worlds? And can modern innovations in design and technology help enrich, expand, and empirically understand this relationship between contemplation and the human capacity for sensemaking?
The symposium addressed these questions to a dazzling array of artists, scholars of religion, philosophers, social scientists, engineers, astronomers, medical researchers, and contemplative practitioners who gathered to discuss cutting-edge research on the triangulation of technology, contemplative practices, and the human senses. Discussion ranged from psychedelic-assisted contemplation and sensory deprivation to the creation of imaginal interlocuters, the embodied origin of emotions, and the potential of grief for transforming one’s perception.
Through an exploration of the ways that immersive technologies can support the transformation of unhealthy or unconscious habits in the human experience, the symposium shed light on the potential of contemplation for cultivating community, well-being, and compassion in the world today. A collaboration between modern science, technology, and ancient wisdoms, SENSEmaking showed that the horizons of human cognition are prone to expanding beyond the reaches of one’s own perception, thus allowing our understandings of the human to dilate into more relational conceptions.
Read more on Currents, an online magazine of public scholarship issued by CSC's Journal of Contemplative Studies.
View the program.
Watch all of the session videos.
View a video recap of the event and a few select photos below.
