Dark running: An autoethnography of embodied experience

Abstract

This paper investigates the body's response to intentional visual deprivation through the experimental practice of “dark running.” Employing a combined methodology of autoethnography and sensory ethnography, the study explores how non-visual senses are mobilised to reconstruct perceptual systems, coordinate bodily movement, and generate new spatial meanings. To analyse this process, the research proposes an ecological framework of sensory reconfiguration that integrates three interrelated dimensions: embodied difference, affective modulation, and habituation. The findings demonstrate that non-visual perception does not operate as a linear substitute for vision; rather, it emerges as a contingent, context-specific strategy shaped by bodily diversity and affective states. Affect functions as a central regulator of sensory prioritisation and risk assessment, while habituation gradually transforms unfamiliar sensations into embodied and structured forms of meaning. The study argues that sensory practices under visual deprivation critically challenge visual hegemony and expose the generative potential of multisensory coordination. By foregrounding the body's adaptive and creative capacities, this research offers a critical perspective to the fields of sensory studies, embodied phenomenology, and non-visual movement practices.