Tour through Findings on Palpation

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Please join us for a tour through the exhibition ‘Findings on Palpation’ with Johann Arens and Dr. Alejandro Granados (Research Associate in Biomechanical Engineering at UCL London). Their collaborative research resulted in a new film project which is presented for the first time in the exhibition at P/////AKT.

The film installation debates the relevance of tactility and contact-based simulation tools and the implications for the plasticity of sculpture as well as human anatomy. The point of departure is the simple observation that both, medical training practice and experientially driven art are conditioned by a shared frustration; the limitation of touch.

The film features two haptic simulation systems; one constructed to allow medics in training to gain experience in patient examination and palpation, the other connecting an historical sculpture to a virtual environment with changed surface resistivity parameters. The increasing relevance of touch-based interfaces for our social environment calls for a critical engagement. The exhibition gauges the significance of computed simulation for cultural artefacts and the intimacy of the audience. What can a heightened awareness of tactility and palpation offer to the principles of contemporary medicine and personalised experience of sculpture?