The Haptic Book
Cradock-Watson, Jane (2015) The Haptic Book. In: Livres d’artistes: the artists book in theory and practice, 4-6 December 2015, Cardiff University. (Unpublished)
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Much critical evaluation of artist's books has been based on the review models of art and literature, yet the artist's book is more often than not a physical object - an artefact. Its physical presence and materiality is integral to its reading which invites a haptic reading and evaluation of the book.
Haptic communication is communicating by touch. Touch is often intimate, like the reading of a book, and can be used as an act of domination or friendship, depending on the context. Young children and old people use more touching than people in the middle years. We seem to lose our ability to interpret the world by touch as our ability to read the world visually begins to dominate, by learning to read, watching television and using computer technology. Yet we touch materials everyday, but rarely consider that we are unconsciously evaluating the world by touch.
Conservators and curators of collections of material culture evaluate artefacts by their materiality, the way the object is made, its material and handling. The book is hand held, we can lift it, it can feel springy on opening, solid or fragile on closing. The shape of the book, its weight, the surface texture of its pages, the way it reacts and moves on opening unconsciously aid our sensory understanding of its contents.
Should we consider critically evaluating an artists book by its tactile qualities and its physical handling in conjunction with its conceptual and visual qualities?
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