Imagine the isolation of being cut off from your community and the people you love—unable to touch, hug, or kiss a loved one for months. This social isolation leaves you yearning for connection.
Consider the growing distance between people when deprived of physical presence, eroding empathy and deepening the sense of disconnection.
Now, envision the possibility of physically holding hands with a loved one thousands of miles away. Imagine feeling the gentle touch of your newborn child's foot while you're far from home. Or offering a simple high five to a stranger across the globe, discovering the deep connections that unite us beyond our separations.
This project bridges physical and emotional distances by enabling participants to transmit and experience tactile sensations such as warmth and pressure, thereby overcoming geographic and cultural barriers. Through an interactive mobile app and immersive public installations, users can send and receive the essence of touch, visualised through various colours that enrich communal spaces and cultivate a culture of empathy. It aims to redefine non-verbal communication, transforming it into a language that fosters understanding in our increasingly divided world.
In its purest form, love is the silent architect that challenges us to bridge the solipsism of our minds into our collective being. This project embodies this philosophy by creating a space where participants can connect deeply through the universal language of touch. By facilitating the exchange of sensations, it transcends physical and cultural barriers, fostering a deeper understanding of ourselves and the intricate ways we are connected to everything around us.
Designed to transform public spaces into hubs of emotional connection. Featuring large, touch-sensitive screens strategically placed in high-traffic areas such as museums and city centres. Participant touch interactions are visualised in real-time through captivating visual maps that dynamically change with the intensity and location of each touch, turning individual interactions into a collective exhibition of connection.
Artists like Roy Ascott have explored telematic art, where viewers in different locations interact with artwork or each other through telecommunications technology. This genre aims to foster communal experiences across large distances.
The ‘Hole in the Space’ (1980) was one of the first projects where physical met digital. Life-size moving images of people at the exact moment on the opposite coast of the USA appeared in the shop windows. Measured by today’s standards, it was a simple installation, making it possible for people on the East and West Coasts to see each other in real-time. However, at the beginning of the Eighties this was a sensation which widened people’s understanding of space and time.
Public art installations often rely on viewers' active participation to achieve their full effect. For example, Candy Chang's "Before I Die" walls transform public spaces into interactive forums where individuals can inscribe their hopes and dreams on vast chalkboards, promoting personal reflection and fostering a sense of communal bond.
A mobile app, leveraging the ability of the touchscreen to detect touchpoints, simulates a heat signature. Analysing the duration and pressure of touch, it employs algorithms to create a simple real-time visual map of each participant, fostering a sense of warmth and closeness by visualising the touch's intensity and location.
This innovative application offers a unique solution for those in long-distance relationships or families living apart, providing a tangible sense of connection through simulated warmth and touch. Additionally, it can serve as an interactive art platform. With a larger screen, participants can jointly create dynamic heat map art, ideal for public spaces like city centres or museums, enhancing communal engagement and artistic collaboration.
Here’s the link for the Touch Textures prototype.
Touch Textures leverages the power of interactive art to create meaningful, emotional bonds between people, fostering empathy through shared experiences, non-verbal communication and the universal language of touch.
As an exhibition and a civic installation, "Touch Textures" encourages engagement, sparks curiosity, and cultivates connections by enabling people to communicate through touch—via shape, pressure, and temperature.
We believe in making life-long love connections through great design.
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