Always watching never touching

always watching never touching

always watching never touching. reviving haptic experience through technology

anastasia victor

manifesto

manifesto

Perception (from the Latin perceptio, percipio, meaning taking; collecting; gathering) is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information.

In humans, this acquisition of sensory input is derived from five senses (touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight) which in turn govern the way we decipher, interpret and manipulate the environment within which we inhabit.

Of the five senses (touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight), it can be argued that we have a biological predilection towards sight, a proclivity that is the defining factor to the way we have and continue to shape our built environment – the human habitat.

This ocular-centric understanding and envisioning of space, a product of past social and cultural conditioning has not only confined environmental design within the constraints of visual representation but is a delimiting factor on a deeper, phenomenological spatial awareness.

Adherence to archaic visual orders forces us rapidly towards the bounds of spatial innovation.

Within the discipline of psychology, the term haptic perception describes a

Perception (from the Latin perceptio, percipio, meaning taking; collecting; gathering) is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. In humans, this acquisition of sensory input is derived from five senses (touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight) which in turn govern the way we decipher, interpret and manipulate the environment within which we inhabit. Of the five senses (touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight), it can be argued that we have a biological predilection towards sight, a proclivity that is the defining factor to the way we have and continue to shape our built environment – the human habitat.

This ocular-centric understanding and envisioning of space, a product of past social and cultural conditioning has not only confined environmental design within the constraints of visual representation but is a delimiting factor on a deeper, phenomenological spatial awareness. Adherence to archaic visual orders forces us rapidly towards the bounds of spatial innovation.

three-dimensional space, stretching beyond mere visual spatial perception and rather shaping a more complex geographical experience. It finds its origins in the Greek word haptic (meaning to lay hold of) and involves the combination of information ascertained via sensory input (e.g. touch, positional awareness, balance, sound, movement) with the memory of past experience, enabling a richer, more varied appreciation of our environment.

Future architectural paradigms should therefore look towards a haptic understanding as the defining factor for shaping new environments; a push from the limitations of an architectural practice centred on the optic.

Within the discipline of psychology, the term haptic perception describes a holistic way of understanding three-dimensional space, stretching beyond mere visual spatial perception and rather shaping a more complex geographical experience. It finds its origins in the Greek word haptic (meaning to lay hold of) and involves the combination of information ascertained via sensory input (e.g. touch, positional awareness, balance, sound, movement) with the memory of past experience, enabling a richer, more varied appreciation of our environment. Future architectural paradigms should therefore look towards a haptic understanding as the defining factor for shaping new environments; a push from the limitations of an architectural practice centred on the optic.

In past design practise this has occurred through the shift from visual orders (line, colour, pattern, rhythm) to new orders, founded upon the dialectics of haptic experience: rough v smooth; hot v cold; hard v soft; wet v dry. However these have primarily dealt with existing materials, aesthetics and tectonics which still remain grounded in cultural perceptions of architecture and space and fail to utilize the scope of rapidly expanding technological

In past design practise this has occurred through the shift from visual orders (line, colour, pattern, rhythm) to new orders, founded upon the dialectics of haptic experience: rough v smooth; hot v cold; hard v soft; wet v dry.

These have however primarily dealt with existing materials, aesthetics and tectonics which still remain grounded in traditional cultural perceptions of architecture and space and fail to utilize the scope of rapidly expanding

advent of new technologies such as sensor feedback networks, wearable electronics (the haptic bodysuit) and touchable holograms (the combination of light projection with ultrasonic acoustic radiation pressure to create physical sensations) have the potential to redefine the way we understand and interact with space and our environments.

Such tools allow us to rethink the very foundations of spatial delineation – what is a wall, a door, an aperture? – in relation to notions of transience, transparency and reconfigurability.

Allowing novel technologies to engage with and inform the present dialectics of architectural space (inside v outside, enclosed v open, porous v impermeable, transparent v opaque) will facilitate the genesis of a new spatial language, through a recoding of our environment outside the hegemony of the eye, thus instigating a new era of egalitarianism in environmental perception. Let us then honour the haptic and fondle our way to new paradigms of architecture, where thresholds are defined through technology and tactility and

technological advancements. The advent of new technologies such as sensor feedback networks, wearable electronics (the haptic bodysuit) and touchable holograms (the combination of light projection with ultrasonic acoustic radiation pressure to create physical sensations) have the potential to redefine the way we understand and interact with space and our environments. Such tools allow us to rethink the very foundations of spatial delineation – what is a wall, a door, an aperture?

– in relation to notions of transience, transparency and reconfigurability.

Allowing novel technologies to engage with and inform the present dialectics of architectural space (inside v outside, enclosed v open, porous v impermeable) will facilitate the genesis of a new spatial language, through a recoding of our environment outside the hegemony of the eye, thus instigating a new era of egalitarianism in environmental perception. Let us then, as designers of the future, honour the haptic and fondle our way into new paradigms of architecture, where thresholds are defined through tactility and technology.

input

input

the self

the self

the hands

the hands

the machine

the machine

semiotics

semiotics

abcdefg hijklmn o p q r s t uvwxyx visual

visual

abcdefg hijklmn opqrst uvwxyx tactile

tactile

digital

digital

lexis

lexis

sensor

sensor

microprocessor

microprocessor

remote control

remote control

output

output