Haptic Taboo
Published April 1, 2021
It could be said that
the increase of computational processing power has enabled images to be
conceived as networks of relations rather than individual objects or pictures. Nonetheless, computation alone wasn’t a sufficient
condition and had to be complemented by contexts rewarding movement and touch;
contexts that had been historically denied to spectators. The
taboo towards touch was largely enforced by images themselves, which, even in
mixed media such as music videos, were chiefly meant to be seen and listened
to. The fear of physical repercussions also feeds the anxiety surrounding touch;
consequences that vision and listening cast off, or at least soften, by the
acknowledgement of a medium thwarting direct contact. It comes as no surprise that
scrolling devices appealing to our sense of touch were also an invitation to
relieve ourselves from the burden of an exclusively theoretical —that is,
visual— attitude towards the world. The desire of touch was also de the
yearning for immediacy, but counterintuitively, in order to quell those
impulses, touch had to be cultivated and introduced to the realm of convention.
To do so, the scroll has fashioned the barely developed haptic media into
micromovements across smooth, vibrating surfaces.
Feautured sounds:
Boys - Charli XCX
Related to on TikTok:
@kuhhai; @pfabianmg; @gnt.finn; @little.demonboy; @lauradical; @chxsley; @ghostiemctoasty; @uncle_august_; @vivdaloo
Featured memes/music genres: DoomerBoy/Twinkjak; Catboy/ Femboy; Hyperpop
Related to on TikTok:
@kuhhai; @pfabianmg; @gnt.finn; @little.demonboy; @lauradical; @chxsley; @ghostiemctoasty; @uncle_august_; @vivdaloo
Featured memes/music genres: DoomerBoy/Twinkjak; Catboy/ Femboy; Hyperpop