The Sensorium of the Twelve Senses aims to use games to introduce to people the senses, which are not commonly known to us, but which are essential to modern living. The interactive object of the Sensorium doesn’t introduce only five of known human senses (touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing), but in a playful way, it also develops our life meaning, sense of movement, balance, heat, or word, as well as the sense of the ideas of another person and for the true “Self” of another person. Through experiencing experiential elements for each of the senses, each visitor can feel the essence of deep inner fulfillment and internal meeting with different senses. A modern person can now develop their skills through a game.
By taking a tour through the Sensorium of the Twelve Senses, a person can experience, identify, and show what can be done to develop the senses; what can be developed in order to improve their activity. The Sensorium gives its visitors the possibility to think about the complexity of human beings. Through games, everyone can experience what is the background of the existence of our twelve senses. The aim is to provide incentives for self-development and for reflection on the experience of life.
The authors of the “Sensorium of the Twelve Senses” are Oldřich Hozman and Jiří Wald.
More information about the exhibition in PDF.
- link to the video, a recording from Folklorika on CT2 about carpentry (from 3rd June 2017) where you can see the Sensorium object from the 23rd minute of the show
- The “Sensorium of the Twelve Senses” exhibition, created for the workshop part of the Play exhibition at the Manes Gallery in Prague. The Orbis Pictus Play was visited by over 3 millions of people.
- Visitors’ feedback
Expositions, where the Sensorium was exhibited
November 4, 2010 – February 20, 2011, Play, Mánes Exhibition, Prague (premiere)
A creative workshop aimed at learning the twelve senses of a man
My wish was to model a sculpture, along with the children, which would capture the typical mood of the twelve senses. I wanted to create a common sculpture with them, which would support the experience of the essence of each of the senses within the Sensorium installation. The Sensorium’s visitors will be allowed to touch the resulting sculpture with their eyes closed and feel the essence of each of the senses.
In the beginning, I was not sure if the children could handle the task. I told them about the senses. When they heard that we could have more senses than we know from school lessons, they began to listen carefully. We talked about the different senses and we became acquainted with them.
In the first half of the creative workshop, the children modelled the moods of the individual senses individually. I felt their surprising concentration and submergence in the theme. When they became more acquainted with the subject, we could come to the culmination of our joint work. I modelled a social sculpture with them, when everyone was involved in every part of the sculpture. They understood that they must sensitively perceive and follow one another. And that’s what happened. In the group of children, there was always an individual who had an idea of how to express the essence or the gesture of the individual meaning by a shape. And the others followed up on it and developed the basic theme step by step. Together we touched objectivity in art through their deep imagination and inspiration. When working together with children, I have enjoyed their joy from the creation itself and the deep ability to concentrate and play.
The work was later cast into bronze. It is now located in the middle of the building for 12 sensors – the Sensorium. Visitors observe the sculpture. They subsequently touch the 12 parts. They close their eyes and guess, which of the senses could each of the 12 parts represent …
Oldrich Hozman
May 4 – 5, 2012, Uměním ke svobodě, (Art for Freedom), Dům U Kamenného zvonu (House at the Stone Bell) in Prague
The exhibition of the “Sensorium of the Twelve Senses” at the “Uměním ke svobodě”(Art for Freedom) exhibition in the “U kamenného zvonu” house (House at the Stone Bell) on the Old Town Square in Prague. The vernissage took place on May 5, 2012 from 18 o’clock. The exposition was complemented by the works resulting from the collaboration with children from orphanages. The exhibition entitled “Uměním ke svobodě (Art for Freedom), organized by the Audabiac civic association in the “U kamenného zvonu” house (House at the Stone Bell) in Prague. The exhibition was held from May 4 to 31, 2012. The public was introduced to the results of the artwork of children from orphanages in creative workshops, annually organized by Audabiac, and other activities of the association, including the ORBIS PICTUS interactive exhibitions, or …
Social art, the sculpture of the twelve senses, implemented by the children from orphanages. Each individual sculpture was jointly modelled in a group of eight to ten children aged 14-16 years. The work is a way of artistic expression of moods and feelings. After familiarizing with the content of the twelve senses teaching, the children focused on the expression of the basic nature of each of the senses in the shape of an artistically processed sculpture. The important part of this work is that each sculpture was created by several artists in one time period. They had to feel one another each other very sensitively, in order for each of them to continue in the work of the previous one. That’s how the nature, the essence of each of the senses could be expressed. The sculpture is placed in the middle of the Sensorium of the Twelve Senses. The visitors can touch the statues and blindly guess which one is which. The product is made of bronze and the original was made of sculpture clay.
June 14 – September 20, 2012, Sinnesrausch in Linz, Austria
Extensive and significant event in the history of the project, an exhibition entitled Labyrinth of Senses (The name used in Austria was Sinnesrausch). The exhibition was held in the Upper Austrian town of Linz, in a significant cultural centre called OÖ Kulturquartier (www.ooekulturquartier.at), on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the gallery formed by combining the renowned center of contemporary art, called OK Offenes Kulturhaus (www.ok-centrum.at) and adjacent Landeskulturzentrum Ursulinenhof (www.ursulinenhof.at).
The exhibition was open to the public from June 14 to September 20, 2012. It was the largest exhibition project of the Orbis Pictus or … cycle, within which an area of more than 6000 m² presented six exhibitions (Gateway to the World of Creative Human Imagination, Leporelohra, Labyrinth of light, Golem, PLAY, and Sensorium). Patronage over the Labyrinth of Senses exhibition was assumed by the Governor of Upper Austria, Josef Pühringer; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Karel Schwarzenberg; Mayor of the City of Prague, Bohuslav Svoboda; Governor of South Bohemia Jiří Zimola, Mayor of the partner city of České Budějovice, Juraj Thoma; and president of the Czech Christian Academy, Tomáš Halík. Current information about the exhibition can be found at www.orbis-pictus.com.
Sensorium, which was part of the show, introduced the theme of twelve human senses to visitors, offering a holistic view of the human being to them. The guides through this issue were qualified custodians who were present at the Sensorium. The object was inspired by teaching about twelve senses introduced by Rudolf Steiner, founder of anthroposophy, and the Pansofia work of J.A Komenský.
March 28 – November 3, 2013, Vikýře Play, “Malostranská beseda”Gallery, Prague
The Vikýře PLAY exhibition in the spring of 2013 was prepared especially for chosen halls, rooms, and attics of Malostranská beseda in Prague. It was a set of attic playing nests, using the magical potential of the attic environment with views of the Malostranská Square. The atmosphere of the attic area in the very heart of Prague inspired to creation of a mysterious cabinet, concentrating summary of experiences for all the senses.
