Title: Touch me if you dare: tactility in media art

Authors: Laetitia Wilson

Addresses: Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, The University of Western Australia (M433), Crawley, WA 6009, Australia

Abstract: Physical computing has enabled artists to take the experience of data beyond the screen and into the materiality of the world of things. Novel interface structures, in recent media art practice, are defying the traditional interface of mouse and joystick to engage the corporeality of the participant in sensuous as well as physically compromising ways. This paper takes a phenomenological perspective from which to critically engage in a discussion of tactility in media art against a background of three case studies that optimise sensory stimuli in the form of moisture, softness and the effect of stimulation in the form of pain. This primary focus of the discussion will be couched in a consideration of how media art interfaces are distinguished from those of traditional art in terms of the nuances of participation demanded by the particular interface in question.

Keywords: tangible interfaces; media art; embodiment; phenomenology; tactility; traditional media; sensory stimuli; moisture; softness; stimulation; pain; tactile interfaces.

DOI: 10.1504/IJART.2011.043444

International Journal of Arts and Technology, 2011 Vol.4 No.4, pp.361 - 372

Received: 29 Jan 2010
Accepted: 23 Jul 2010
Published online: 11 Jan 2015 *

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