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Conference – Royal
Institute of British Architects, London, 7th May 2008
On 7th May 2008 we held the conference ‘Memory
and Touch’ in support of the exhibition Haptic – awakening
the senses. It was a very interesting day with speakers from many
different disciplines, demonstrating the breadth of interest in
the importance of touch as a means of communication. As one of
the speakers, Professor Masayo Ave, commented: many societies today
are touch-starved – always facing the injunction ‘not
to touch’. We have made available abstracts from the day
see the link from the speakers name below) and are looking at the
possibilities of publishing the papers – further announcements
will be made here.
Memory
and Touch: an exploration of textural communication
“touch
cannot be in opposition to itself, can never be perceived as
surface or source, but an acknowledgement that actual is mutual – a
conjoining of two.”*
As babies we
learn to define and refine our relationship with our surroundings
through licking, touching, smelling, hearing and seeing, and
throughout our lives we continue to experience the world through
our senses. Yet once we have acquired verbal language, we rarely
acknowledge how much we understand through our textural awareness;
there is an intimacy, a privacy surrounding our sensory experiences,
their very bodily nature a potential source of embarrassment.
The more we attempt to control our environment and our interaction
with the physical world through intellectual scrutiny of objects,
and deny the fundamental importance of textural experience,
the more we risk loosing that level of communication achieved
through attention to the senses, for “to touch is also
to be touched”**. And as such always creates a dialogue,
a communication both before and beyond text.
It is possible
to touch colour in a sense, because very bright red will work
on expectation and somehow the colour will bring some warmth.
Some people see cloth through the sound it makes, the sound
when people are walking and the cloth moves against the skin;
expensive textiles especially make a more beautiful sound,
and that there is very often an erotic connection to the sound
of certain textiles. Conference presentations will draw on
a wide variety of interpretations, disciplines and experiences,
exploring the symbolic, cultural, social and technical aspects
of textural communication. Keynote speaker will be the highly
influential Japanese designer Kenya Hara, whose exhibition
Haptic – awakening the senses, opened at the RIBA
Gallery on 7th May.
Venue: Royal Institute of British
Architects, Portland Place, London
Date: May 7th 2008
Chair: Vicky Richardson,
Editor Blueprint, Media Partner for Conference and Exhibition
Speakers
Kenya Hara, Chief Executive Nippon Design, Chief
Designer MUJI, curator of Haptic – awakening of the senses
Professor Masayo Ave, Estonia Academy
of Art, Founder of the Centre for Haptic Interface Design,
Berlin University of Art, creator of the Haptic dictionary
Robert Zimmer and Professor Janis Jefferies,
Goldsmiths Digital Studios, Goldsmiths, University of
London
Kate Baker, Belinda
Mitchell, School
of Architecture and Interior Design University of Portsmouth
June Hill, Curator, writer
Dr Mark Paterson, School of Geography,
Archaeology and Earth Resources, University of Exeter,
Author: The Senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies
Short presentations
Mary Schoeser, Senior Research Fellow, University of the Arts
London, curator, writer
Fiona Jane Candy, Senior Lecturer, Department
of Design University of Central Lancashire,
Trish Bould and Kathy Oldridge, University of Southampton
Dr Frances Geesin, Reader in Textiles and Materials, University
of the Arts London
Lesley Sutton, Artist, project leader Stories of Cloth
Media Partner for Conference and Exhibition
*Chadwick, Helen ‘Lumina Delights’ in ‘Enfleshings’ p69
pub Aperture Foundation 1989.
**
Rodaway Paul (1994). Sensuous
Geographies: Body, Sense and Place. p41 London. Routledge
Exhibition – RIBA Gallery London & Lighthouse,
Glasgow
HAPTIC – awakening
the senses
A major exhibition
curated by the highly influential Japanese designer Kenya Hara,
Chief Executive Designer Nippon Design Centre Inc. and MUJI.
The exhibition features world famous architects Toyo Ito and
Shigeru Ban, plus designers of product, fashion, graphics, textiles,
interiors, a traditional Japanese plasterer, an electrical appliance
manufacturer and a science and technology journalist. The
exhibitors have investigated the various aspects of sensory perception
and translated their observations into surprising and challenging
design outcomes, producing an alternative design practice, one
that originates in the senses.
The term ‘haptic’ primarily
relates to the sense of touch, but can also include all sensory
perception. All of the experiences of human perception occur
on the membranes of the body. When we choose to activate the
sense of sight, the sense of touch is also engaged. As curator
Kenya Hara says:
“Without resorting to new materials or abstractionism, we can infer that
there is something vital in the domain of the senses. That’s why we can
understand the tactile sensation of a scrubbing brush without actually experiencing
it.”
Exhibition - The Gallery, University College for the Creative Arts
Epsom
MAKE-DO it HAPTIC - design projects
by Masayo Ave 1990-2008
Masayo Ave is
one of the participants in ‘Haptic – an
awakening of the senses’ at RIBA London and Lighthouse Glasgow.
Masayo Ave initially trained as an architect before turning to
design. This exhibition is a retrospective of her work, which includes
her ground breaking Haptic dictionary created in collaboration
with designers and students in Italy, Germany, Holland and Estonia.
For further information
contact Lesley Millar on lmillar@ucreative.ac.uk
Media Partner for Conference and Exhibition
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