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Stories

  • Article

Making sense of senses lost

In rapid succession, Steve Barker suddenly lost sight and hearing on his left side. The effect on how he perceives the world has been profound.

  • Comic

Senses

Senses. We've all got them. But how do they work?

  • Article

Synaesthesia, or when senses overlap

What’s it like to see heartbeats, taste Tube stations or hear paintings?

  • In pictures

Humans, animals and the sensory world

Artists and medics through the ages have made links between our discerning human senses and similar traits in animals. Discover how close we are to the earth’s other inhabitants.

All stories (292)

Images

  • The five senses: sight, surrounded by vignettes showing the other senses. Coloured lithograph by Belin.
  • The sense of smell in Boone's "Allegories of the senses"
  • The five senses represented by five children. Chromolithograph.
  • The five senses and death. Watercolour by Elizabeth Painter, 1957.
  • A physical essay on the senses / Translated from the French.
  • Five people, each exercising one of the five senses. Coloured lithograph by L.-L. Boilly, 1823.
  • A bird's beak cuts a woman's hand; representing the sense of touch and the fact that it persists longer (in pain) than the other senses. Engraving, 16--.
  • The fallibility of the senses: above, justice, fame and deceit; below, doctors conducting an autopsy on a cadaver, surrounded by onlookers. Engraving, 1692.
  • A bath-house containing six men and an onlooker, perhaps an allegory of the four humours and five senses. Photolithograph after A. Dürer, c. 1496.
  • Cleveland, the ficitious natural son of Oliver Cromwell, sits in a library reading, but philosophy cannot prevent the conflict within him between the senses and reason. Line engraving, 1751.
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Catalogue

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Events

  • Event

Performance by Alice Pailhes

Gallery 1
Past

Part of Smoke and Mirrors Live Performances

  • Discussion

That Stinks

Viewing Room
Past

Part of Library Insights

  • British Sign Language
  • Speech-to-text
  • Event

Performance by Alice Pailhès

Gallery 1
Past

Part of Smoke and Mirrors Live Performances

All events (3)