Sensory Pedagogy and Alternative Forms of Assessment: Learning Mappings through Art
Analía Capponi-Savolainen; University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland

This presentation explores alternative approaches to assessment that challenge conventional written and standardised testing by proposing circular, participatory, and sensory forms of evaluation grounded in embodied, artistic, and communal practices. Learning is framed as a dynamic ecology of knowledge shaped by plural epistemologies and informed by decolonial perspectives that legitimise diverse ways of knowing. Art is understood not as an accessory but as a participatory methodology for knowledge circulation. The Sound Gardens project (Eleusis 2023 – European Capital of Culture) exemplifies this approach, engaging pupils from intercultural primary schools and a special education unit in recording urban sounds and translating them into interactive multisensory maps activated through light, colour, and movement. These maps functioned as repositories of ecological and historical memory. Assessment was co-designed by pupils, educators, and artists, with collaboratively defined criteria such as sensory quality and intercultural collaboration. Comparable projects in Novi Sad 2022 and Kaunas 2022 demonstrate the transferability of this dialogic, inclusive, and empowering assessment model across diverse urban contexts.