Out of Touch
Steve Sun
Advisor: Theo Ellin Ballew
How do we think of physical objects? What are the properties of the objects and their surroundings that we take notice of? What do our interactions say about ourselves? In this project, I hope to explore those questions through interviews and video documentations.
Abstract
Through their materiality, objects have stories to tell, stories that otherwise won’t be available to us unless we make physical contact and interactions with them in an intentional manner. Without touch, these stories are quite literally, Out of Touch.
So to investigate and open up these stories to the world, I started out investigating the connection between our sense of touch and the physical properties of objects -- how the physical properties of an object change our ways of interacting with them.
As I progressed, the project evolved into including human psychology exploration, exploring what the different ways we interact with physical objects say about us -- our life experiences, culture, and unique nostalgic memories.
I manufactured groups of objects with different properties while keeping one consistent, then I asked my peers to interact with them freely in a controlled setting and interviewed them for their thoughts. The main question in mind is "what about these object made you interact with them this way."
Then I compiled the footage of the interview and made a video installation.
Technical Details
For the objects themselves: they are made with various techniques including hand cutting and sanding, CNC milling, different techniques of finishing. The conscious choice of keeping features of some of the objects raw and untouched is also important here.
For the interview: I had a two-camera setup with one shooting top-down and one hand-held, the groups of object is placed on a table with a tray levitating them off the table. There is an LED providing lumination, and the sound of the interaction is recorded.
For the installation: there are two computer monitors (with 2 HDMI cables), two laptops for the videos, and four LED light with four groups of objects displayed on trays.
Research/Context
- a visit to an ancient tree museum showed different stages of wear and polish on the exhibits just from visitors toughing them, it made me wonder what do we like or not like to touch and what shapes/textures makes us touch them differently.
- I'm a big material person. I love making projects out of different materials, different combinations of materials and see how they contrast and interact with each other.I am familiar with how to change and manipulate physical properties of materials, and I'm interested in how people's perception of materials differ from me.
