The Challenge of the Senses. Veiling and Suspicion in Early Modern Madrid (B03)

• Subject Area: Early Modern History
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 394775490

B03 investigates which effects and which requirements the integration of the sensory perception of the population of pre-modern cities had on political and social tasks. In the second funding phase, it focuses on the residential city of Madrid and there on particular challenges to sensory perception. These challlenges occurred when something was hidden or not clearly visible. Cases involving a lack of visibility are analysed in relation to inaccessible spaces, clothing that strongly obstructed vision (veils, cloaks, etc.), pretensions to status, and nighttime accidents and crimes. How techniques and states of concealment set in motion the use of different senses will be investigated, but also the logic of suspicion, and what effect this had on the role of vigilance.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1369: Cultures of Vigilance. Transformations - Spaces - Practices
• Applicant Institution: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Project Head: Professor Dr. Arndt Brendecke