On the lecture about computational art and touching visions our lecturer asked us to see a series of videos and comment them in groups.
Three different videos dedicated to touch as a concept for art.
The first one is the interview of Sondra Perry for her work and exhibition at Serpentine. This artist is working with video and at her exhibition she is presenting them in various installations. One of them shows a close up on the human skin. This video is interesting in particular as we talked about touch during the lecture. Seeing the skin is awaking the sense of touch. You see it and you are feeling that you are touching it. The same effect has the video from Mona’s Hatoum work “corps Etranger”(1) which goes back to 1994. This video is a video from an endoscopic camera that films (examine) the surface and the interior of the artist’s body.
It is worth mentioning that what we all agreed after watching these videos is that we all have a feeling probably of disgust. That emerge from the fact that we related the visual if the touch. However the artistes doesn’t seem to intent to relate their work with the visual touch among the other meanings that they have given.
The third piece we saw which I personally find a very interesting idea was nothing like the other two but it was presenting the touch with a different perspective. That was the documentation of the performance of “Passing Through Metal” by Oreet Ashery. That was about a metal band accompanied by the sound and the presence of ladies that knit. Here you can see a form of touch on the knitting but also feel the touch through the sound.
That video didn’t receive comments about disgust but definitely put some questions regarding the ostensibly contrasting coexistence of metal culture, which has an aggressive and dark character with the peaceful process of knitting.
(1)Newmedia-art.org. (2019). Mona Hatoum / Corps étranger. [online] Available at: http://www.newmedia-art.org/cgi-bin/show-oeu.asp?ID=150000000007761&lg=GBR [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].