Ethics of Touch in Art Practice During Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Starting PhD research about sense of touch, and responsive materiality during the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic became an ethical journey in Art Practice, Phenomenology, and the materiality of Computer Human Interaction. This paper is a reflective and critical account of practice-led research within lockdown limitations. It includes the personal perspective of an early career researcher and maker’s response to a health emergency. The reflection is focused on the impossibility of creating a physically shared tactile experience as direct contact between skin and matter which, in times of isolation, sparked a conversation within the supervision team, and colleagues on different aspects of touch: agency, contact, self-awareness, research documentation, and ethical implications. My PhD drastically evolved from investigating how the somatosensory system can enhance wellbeing, to exploring how material-based approaches can comprehend tech-matter-human relationship. The research is supported by ‘100 Year Life’ project at Lab4Living, Sheffield Hallam University. In a study that set out to explore the nature and potentiality of touch through human material interaction, in the context of high risk of contagion through touch during COVID I was compelled to consider alternatives. The paper is about the interrogation the touch screen as the safe replacement for human interaction.

Keywords:

• Touch
• making
• materiality
• observation
• contagion
• transmission

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Claudia Hammond (2020) launched a new study about the role of touch commissioned by the Wellcome collection and in collaboration with BBC Radio 4, it’s the largest study on touch, with 40,000 people from different countries. The episodes cover different approaches to tactility from neuroscience to grief and touch-hunger.

2 The 100 year life project Lab4Living https://lab4living.org.uk/projects/the-100-year-life-project/.

Additional information

Funding

This PhD research is supported by the‘100 Year Life’ project² at Lab4Living, Sheffield Hallam University, through Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England (E3) fund.

Notes on contributors

Marika Grasso

Marika Grasso is an artist PhD candidate funded by Lab4Living. Her research concerns materiality and tactile relationships. She studied Textiles at Royal College of Art and Fashion at Central St Martins. Her work has been exhibited at the CHI University of Bolzano, Stanley Gallery, YAS, Ars Eletronica. She joined Activism Neuroaesthetics by Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art. She was a Junior Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM).