Conversation: What is haptic art and how is it experienced?
A conversation as part of Body of Work: an event about art that uses technology to turn your body into its material.
17:00 Mingling, drinks and exhibition
18:00 Conversation
19:30 End
Art that uses touch as its primary sense doesn't fit neatly into the existing cultural landscape. Where and how can it be exhibited? In a gallery or in a yoga studio? Is it closer to an aesthetic SPA experience or can it be provocative and critical?
Technology is often alienating. In works like this it has the opposite effect: grounding, presencing, bringing us closer together. But somatic art tends to fall into health instrumentalism, reducing art to something that makes life easier, while good art often makes life more complex. When working with touch, can we create difficult experiences? What is the death metal equivalent of somatic art?
Speakers:
Jonatan Habib Engqvist, author and curator with a background in Philosophy and Aesthetic theory.
Susanne Fessé, art historian and nurse who has written extensively about art and emotions.
Tim Bishop, artist and sound designer who builds one-on-one experiences using EEGs, haptics, and sensory deprivation.
Laia Turmo Vidal, Assistant Professor in Interaction Design at KTH working on body-centred technologies, soma design, and health.
Moderated by Jakob Skote, artist and co-organiser of Body of Work.
Image: Lundahl & Seitl, A Missing Room