Suspension of control matrices through touch

Abstract

This research-creation project emerges from an expanded notion of touch —un­derstood as a specific, performative practice within multimedia art— as both movement and interface that generates worlds. I propose that this approach holds the potential to increase happiness by liberating us from certain control matrices. Through touch —fundamentally a relational act— I explore modes of mediating existence and transforming it (while simultaneously transforming ourselves) via a broad spec­trum of techniques, procedures, machines, and arts. This work begins with suspension as an action that disrupts the Cartesian segmentation of the senses as distinct categories, aiming to expand the inquiry into the relationships between artistic practices and happiness, and between image and technique-technology. To this end, I introduce the concept of artécnica (art-technique), conceived as a way to establish an in­dispensable dialogue between making and thinking. The research seeks to deepen our understanding of this relationship and the potential of practice to trans­mute “difficulties into means”. Adopting an experiential, situated-knowledge approach, I engage with concepts drawn from sociology and art theory, as well as those generated at the intersection of art and technique. Suspensión investigates the political-affective dimension of electronic arts and explores haptics as a gateway to alternative modes of perception.