Mark Paterson

How is haptics involved in knowledge creation? What knowledge is produced in reconceptualizing touch through other means? There is a humanist privileging of a certain kind of knowledge gained directly through the hands in craftsmanship, painting, and skillful training. Some see this as partially translating into digital craftsmanship and computer-aided design. The engineering of force feedback (haptics) involves hands, muscles, and skin in active engagement with digital sensation for the purposes of the design of objects and textiles, then, but also for more wholly embodied entertainment and performance experiences. Videogame controllers buzz in our hands, while haptic bodysuits stimulate hands and other body parts for fun or art. Scientific processes of sensory mapping, the engineering of the interface, electrical and electronic entertainments, and the use of the body in performance each in their own way involve a creative approach to knowledge production: creative arrangements of the senses, translations between modalities, a realm of experimentation in the service of knowing more about bodies, senses, and space – what Michel Serres describes as a ‘mingling’ of the senses. Increasingly, social science understands the importance of such sensory knowledge production, and involves its own creative methodologies and approaches when it comes to bodies and their boundaries. The day will consist of talks and demonstrations around touch, haptics, and performance. 

Participants

Kate Elswit, Reader in Theatre and Performance, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London
Anna Harris, Assistant Professor, Department of Technology and Society Studies, Maastricht University
Carey Jewitt, Professor of Education, Director UCL Knowledge Lab, University College London  
David Parisi, Associate Professor of Emerging Media, College of Charleston, US
Stahl Stenslie, Kulturtanken – Arts for Young Audiences and accomplished multimedia artist, Norway

Program

Block 1

10:30 AM Welcome | Jorinde Seijdel
10:45 AM Introduction | Mark Paterson
11:00 AM Imaginations of Remote Personal Touch Communication | Carey Jewitt
11:45 AM Break 

Block 2

12:00 AM Making Breath Palpable: Theatricality, Somatics, and Technology in Uncertain Archives | Kate Elswit
1:45 PM Lunch break

Block 3

2:00 PM Simulating Touch: Learning Tactility through Analogy in Medical Education | Anna Harris
3:00 PM | Break

Block 4

3:15 PM The Algorithms of Immediate Contact: On Touch and its Virtualizations | David Parisi
4:00 PM Artgasm – Orgasms as Art | Stahl Stenslie
5:00 PM End of program