LACE #1: Topographies of Touch

mission statement

Topography, according to the Oxford Dictionary of English, brings together the origin words topo– that comes from the Ancient Greek for place, and graphy– commonly associated with writing. Unlike choreography, however, where -graphy has traditionally been associated with writing, in sciences like geography, -graphy is what designates this particular science as descriptive. Topography, then, can be understood as the science of describing, naming, and acknowledging place in its situatedness, its specificity, in its present and its history.

When described, named, and acknowledged, the abstract–situatedness, specificity, present, and history–becomes sensed, felt. It becomes the experience of colour, of tone, and texture; it becomes a source of wisdom, and evidence of knowledge. This activity evidences the importance and value of considering place for any (critical) study to succeed.

Topographies of Touch is imagined as a collection of events, each of which functions as a metaphorical place where touch can be examined in its context-specific capacities. The range of contexts we chose to examine this year encompass a variety of scales: human-to-human, human-to-practice, human-to-institution, and human-to-non-human.

When examined within a variety of contexts in a short period of time by a variety of human and non-human subjects, what about touch will become evident? What about touch, in other words, will we be able to learn only when we accept this simple suggestion: that each of our experience of touch is specific, and that each of our experiences of touch is specific for a reason.