Friday 16 May 2008

Memory and touch



This conference was held at RIBA, London, on 7 May 2008. The exhibition Haptic: awakening the senses was on show at the same venue. Kenya Hara who put together the exhibition opened the conference by described some of the exhibits in the Haptic exhibition: lanterns made of washi paper with silk and hair attached to them; small paper images like water boatmen with a magnet in them that lie on the surface of the water and rotate in unison; and his own paper pin ball machine that uses water instead of ball bearings.

Janis Jefferies and Robert Zimmer discussed their project Tatu developing a system for museums that simulates the feel of the artefacts. Frances Geeson described her electroplates textiles. Thinking as drawing explained how Trish Bould and Kathy Oldridge had collaborated on a project through drawing. June Hill discussed how feelings are conveyed and the role of materiality in conveying these feelings. Mary Schoeser talked about cultural memory and how our past defines us.

Fiona Jane Candy talked about clothing’s influence on the way we feel. She showed a photograph of her first day at school and described how her new clothes made her feel. She also discussed the different responses that picture elicited in her and her parents. She had also studied the relationships that women with rheumatoid arthritis have with their clothes. Masayo Ave told us how she developed her haptic dictionary. Kate Baker and Belinda Mitchell described their work analysing buildings and people using space through observing and experiencing dance movement in architectural space.

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