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Tactile Imagery - The Concept

My definition of a tactile image is a designed piece, primarily experienced through touch, that exploits and encapsulates the tactile sense. It is a combination of sensations intended to stimulate the imagination, a springboard for personal interpretation. My interest in the tactile aesthetic has evolved because I feel the potential for the tactile image has not yet been fully realised. I feel that texture is generally used in design merely as a complimentary aesthetic and therefore its potential as the dominant mode of perception has been prematurely dismissed. Perhaps the boundaries surrounding this area have not been pushed enough for, according to lederman, "Texture is to touch what colour is to vision."1 Within my research I have limited my definition of touch to the exploring of objects using the hands. I have also explored the difference between passive touch and active fingertip exploration.

1. W.Schiff & E. Foulke, Tactual Perception, Cambridge University Press,1982