TAST

Transnational Activation of Simultaneous Touch (TAST) explores how might we communicate touch over a network.

DETAILS

PESETABS

NEWS

Domain

Health

Theme

Haptic feedback technology

Te Prototype Haptic System

Ar Art Installation

Prototype Haptic Caressing System

A demonstrator prototype device, existing of a double layered micro motor and touch sensor wearable transmitting soft vibrations to resemble the feeling of patting and caressing.

Art Installation

The TAST installation was showed at V2_ enabling two visitors to simultaneously touch each other over a distance.

Details

About

TAST, acronym for Transnational Activation of Simultaneous Touch, is an investigation into tactility and how we can play with our senses as explorers of new perceptions. It deals with questions like: How to communicate touch over a network? What does it mean to feel touch from a distance? It also questions communication patterns in the context of current societal topics and digital lifestyle.

In our current (post) covid-19 time frame, it is challenging to re-enact a work that addresses the absence of our tactile senses in online interaction. The internet is very well equipped to communicate text, image and sound, but the communication of touch over a network has not been explored much outside the academic world. How do we transfer the feeling of friendship, comfort, warmth, love, or sexuality over digital distance? How can we extend our bodily sensations? Bearing in mind that sensory perception also changes through our use of technology.

Short demonstration of TAST

Artist/s

Marnix de Nijs

Marnix de Nijs (NL) is an artist who works on the body-machine relationship. In his work, he explores the dynamic clashes between bodies, machines and technology in contemporary society. He shows how contemporary technological culture acts upon our senses and continuously shapes our modes of perception. Many of his artworks are interactive experience machines that play with the perception of image and sound. Since the mid 90’s, he has been a pioneer in researching the experimental use of media and technologies in Art. Impelled by the idea that technology acts as a driving force behind cultural change and therefore capable of generating new experiences where societal habits and communication are rethought, his work thrives on the creative possibilities offered by new media, while critically examining their impact on our contemporary society.

Exhibitions

The work has been exhibited at:

2022 ■ V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media (NL – Rotterdam)

Partners

V2_Lab for the Unstable Media

Duration

2020 – 2022

Investment

€45.000

Credits

Transnational Activation of Simultaneous Touch is the result of a ‘Re-enacting the Archive Residency’ at V2_Lab and In4Art, focused on creating a re-enactment of Norman White and Duog Black ‘Telephonic Arm-Wrestling’ at V2_ in 1986 & 2011.

Marnix de Nijs is also supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL to realise the installation.