Communicating touch: Physical places via digital spaces

Butler, Angie

Abstract

To organise and host an online research event for ten creative practitioners that was planned previously as a physical one, required a specific way of thinking about structure and content. The curation (of the event) would be crucial to the participants experiences and research outcomes.
My co-host and I needed to take into account the types of spaces we would be negotiating for our event: the studio and the domestic setting, the computer and phone screen, the capacity for conversational and collaborative spaces, the contemplative place that we need for deep thought and reflection. The zone for creative flow, when we are involved in activities and making. Also, to consider how these spaces could relate to a programme of Touch activities and projects, so practitioners would feel positive and willing to share their ideas, their work-in-progress and talk candidly about their own and others’ experiences.
This video presentation discusses the methodology we developed and implemented alongside findings from the research event.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Touch: Reflections on Making
• Start Date: Dec 10, 2020
• End Date: Dec 10, 2020
• Deposit Date: Mar 9, 2021
• Keywords: touch, tacit, embodied knowledge, collaborative, digital
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7192886
• Additional Information: Touch: Reflections on making: a collaborative symposium event produced by the Crafts Council and the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England.; 10 December 2020.; ; In craft and research practice, to touch is often to make and to know. How do those who touch in their practice respond to the ‘new reality’? How can touch be simulated or evoked through digital means? How has our changed experience of touching over the past year challenged our haptic engagement?; ; An event for makers, designers and artists to come together and explore the importance of touch in making and the world today.