Touch: Reflections on making - a crafted digital event

Boons, Sofie; Fahy, Niamh; Ho, Wuon-Gean

Abstract

This paper reports on the online symposium titled Touch: Reflections on Making developed between the Centre for Fine Print Research (CFPR) at the University of the West of England and the UK Crafts Council in December 2020. The event addressed the theme of ‘touch’ within the context of craft and was developed in response to the global pandemic’s impact on our ability to haptically engage with the world. As artists, researchers and craftspeople, the theme, format and presentations of the symposium were designed to adapt to the needs of makers for whom touch is often intrinsic to practice. The pandemic created a requirement to limit physical connection and exchange. This has transformed the ‘notion’ as a carefully curated operation, performed to create the least amount of impact. While fear of touch proliferated across the collective unconscious, artists and craftspeople were faced with a heightened awareness on the significance of touch to creation and exchange within their practice. Limited to the use of a digital platform, the organisers were challenged to adjust this format to suitably deliver an event that would acknowledge the role of tactility and touch as a crucial component of creative practice and knowledge generation. In light of this the aim was to deliver an experience that looked at technology, digital format and delivery as a project to be crafted. Within this paper we discuss the development and production of the digital platform, workshop delivery and materials created, as well as reflect on the user experience.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: The Image, Twelfth International Conference
• Start Date: Sep 13, 2021
• End Date: Sep 14, 2021
• Deposit Date: Dec 8, 2021
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/8140342