Thresholds of Touch

Abstract

We are in a crisis of touch, prompting a need to reconsider and revalue our tactile behavior and the reciprocity of touching (Kearney, 2021). This crisis provided a starting point for Thresholds of Touch, the performance experiment that underpins this video article. Thresholds was devised through a two- year interdisciplinary collaboration between the authors – an artist/researcher, social researcher, and sound composer/researcher. The performance experiment was scripted and choreographed to care- fully explore the reciprocity of physical touching with others, the self, the environment, and objects as a ‘tactile preparation chamber’ to sensitize and activate people to share and document their touch experiences. This video article uses artistic embodied strategies to engage with and reflect on the participants experiences of Thresholds. Through our layering, re-enactment and live-tracing of participants visual and written responses to Thresholds, and our spoken and written reflections we create an analytical dialogue with the performance. The video article proposes these methods as an invitation to the viewer to move and touch through this dialogue as a route to newly research and attune to touch.

Keywords

• embodied research
• performance experiment
• care
• interactivity
• scenography
• artistic research