How Do Worlds Feel?

About the Theme

This question foregrounds aesthetics, in the etymological sense of how worlds are perceived through various senses. It also invites attention to affect, and histories of emotion (e.g., grief, love, anger, happiness, etc.). It may entail a focus on rituals and the sacral, the mystical, or the ecstatic. It might also foreground the everyday, the quotidian, the “lifeworld.”

This question can be asked of worlds of different sizes, at different scales. These might include Imagined Communities (Benedict Anderson), diasporas, public spheres, subcultures, secret societies, geological epochs.

The question invites us to think about how we feel the past (and the future). That might mean a focus on “structures of feeling” (Raymond Williams) or an exploration of speculative fictions and other kinds of “fantasy” storytelling. It may involve attention to “multiverses” or “pluriverses.”

Some versions of the question may hone in on matters of travel, migration, movement, borders, and what “home” means. It might ask questions of embodiment and tactility, or textures. It necessarily poses questions about dis/ability, infrastructure, the politics of how spaces and worlds are shaped, often in ways that are unevenly accommodating.