Rediscovering the Haptic Sense through Crossroads of Art and Design Research

摘要

The 'future is haptic' is what we have been hearing from technologists and visionary theorists. Yet, haptic is not a technological feature, but a biological function. Haptic is almost an unknown term outside the research discourses and engineering labs. When asked, the majority of people ignore the relation between haptic and touch. What is unknown is that haptic is part of our multifunctional sense of touch formed by cutaneous, kinesthetic, and haptic sensory systems. Proposing to rediscover the haptic through crossroads of art and design research, intermediated by emergent technologies, this paper aims to introduce a haptic art concept for a touch reactive dynamic surface as an awareness project. Inspired by the instinctive survival touch reactions of the living beings, it is intended to construct the knowledge of the self through the sense of touch, following the latest technological advances in smart materials that provide physical interactivity for art and design explorations.