Inspiration

Created by the panGenerator collective in partnership with Cheil, Tactilu is a research project embracing remote haptic/tactile communication. The device takes a form of a bracelet capable of transmitting the touch between two individuals via bluetooth and internet connection provided by the smartphones. It is based on technologies like flexinol wire for actuation of touch and QTC ( quantum tunneling composite ) on the touch sensor layer.

I have been thinking a lot about how our skin serve as an interface for tactile communication lately. And how our scars make up our individual timeline of dramatic events.

For several years, my skin used to be hyper sensitive and raise to imitate where and how it had been touched. The sharp quality of a finger nail provided accurate feedback, and so my classmates and I used my arms as canvases to draw things. The skin would stay swelled long enough for us to play a game of Tic Tac Toe.

Phillip Stearns, electronic media artist, did these explorations of 3d printed algorithmically generated forms to find out if they would allow you to listen to the ocean like sea shells found in nature does.

The project questions the role of experience in the mediation of the virtual world to the real world and visa versa.

For those of us who have had the experience of listening to the sound of the ocean in actual seashells, it is a questions of lived experience shaping an approach, not only to the object (or world) at hand, but how it is perceived and acted upon. Are we to trust these shells? Do we seek out natural shells for comparison?

To those for whom their first experience of listening to the “ocean” through the digitally produced shell, the question becomes one of how the first encounter with a virtualized and simulated reality shapes the experience of lived space.  This virtual shell is all I know of the real, until I encounter those found in nature—and when I see this natural shell, what then is my experience of?  More broadly, how does mediated reality form our preconceptions of the world?

This is how you host a tactile dinner party à la futurist Filippo Tommasi Marinetti:

Pajamas have been prepared for the dinner, each one covered with a different material such as sponge, cork, sandpaper, or felt. As the guests arrive, each puts on a pair of the pajamas. Once all have arrived and are dressed in pajamas, they are taken to an unlit, empty room. Without being able to see, each guest chooses a dinner partner according to their tactile impression. The guests then enter the dining room, which consists of tables for two, and discover the partner they have selected.

The meal begins. The first course is a 'polyrhythmic salad,' which consists of a box containing a bowl of undressed lettuce leaves, dates and grapes. The box has a crank on the left side. Without using cutlery, the guests eat with their right hand while turning the crank with their left. This produces music to which the waiters dance until the course is finished.

The second course is 'magic food', which is served in small bowls covered with tactile materials. The bowl is held in the left hand while the right picks out balls made of caramel and filled with different ingredients such as dried fruits, raw meat, garlic, mashed banana, chocolate, or pepper. The guests cannot guess what flavor they will encounter next.

The third course is 'tactile vegetable garden,' which is a plate of cooked and raw green vegetables without dressing. The guest eats the vegetables without the use of their hands, instead burying their face in the plate of vegetables, feeling the sensation of the greens on their face and lips. Each time a guest raises their head to chew, the waiters spray their face with perfume.