Touch as an aesthetic experience

Abstract

Touch is gaining attention in sensory studies and in art practice where the over-emphasis on sight and visuality in academic discourse is increasingly been questioned. The exhibition The Blind Astronomer (2013) by South African artist Berco Wilsenach participated in this larger critique of visuality by inviting audiences to engage with the works through the sense of touch. In particular, the artworks exposed the limitations of the spectatorial epistemology of modern Western scientific discourse. In this article, I explore some of the ways in which the exhibition questioned long-held assumptions about the primacy of vision in Western science and aesthetics, the relationship between touch and vision, and touch as an aesthetic experience. The eviction of touch from the gallery and museum as well as from what is considered to count as aesthetic experience has led to an absence of language adequate to describing the complex nature of aesthetic touch. I suggest that first-hand accounts of blind peoples’ haptic experiences with art, combined with insights gained from research in psychology as well as experiments by artists who encourage tactile encounters with their work can enrich and enhance how we understand an aesthetic experience that is simultaneously visual and tactile.