The sensory politics of mathematics: aestheticizing multiplication

Research has highlighted the important role that the senses play in mathematics thinking and learning, particularly in the area of visualisation, but also in relation to physical movement. Recent scholarship suggests that sensory experiences are not limited to the five cardinal senses but involve a range of other specific senses as well as combinations of senses. The aim of this article is to explore how this expanded understanding of the senses matters to mathematics education research. We frame our argument in terms of aestheticizing mathematics education research, focusing not only on mathematics knowing, but also on implications for investigating the mathematical sensorium; for the latter, we propose the use of re-enactments as powerful research methods. To empirically elaborate on this argument, we illustrate the use of this method to investigate how senses matter in developing multiplicative thinking around/with multitouch technology.