Symmetries of Touch
International Workshop hosted by the Chair of the Theory of Media Worlds, Oct. 5-7, 2016.
First telephones, then TV sets and personal computers, today smartphones, tablets and wrist watches — our interaction with media is increasingly marked by the sense of touch. With the rapid spread of touch screens, typing, pressing, and swiping have become dominant modes of interacting with media devices, at least equaling the importance of seeing and hearing. However, it’s not just us who increasingly touch media. In turn, more and more media technologies are also touching, scanning and sensing us. We are completely used to pressure sensors in car seats, motion detectors in automatic doors and dark stairways, body scanners in airports, courts and other public institutions. At the same time, however, we enter into a society populated with mobile and portable media packed with sensors: from smartphones and glasses to shoes and activity trackers. This double-sided tactility-boom provokes us to rethink media technologies: what they are and/or are becoming right now.