DO NOT TOUCH: ART AND TACTILITY
When observing artwork on the walls of museums or those of your own home, texture plays as key a role as colour, line, and form. What can a glimpse into the functions of tactile perception tell us about how we enjoy art and how artists employ texture to manipulate viewer experience?
Image courtesy of Andrej Lišakov
A major global online trend has emerged over the past five years in which internet users called “ASMRtists” share videos performing all kinds of activities that produce an autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR). ASMR is the satisfying, relaxing sensation one gets from, for example, having their hair played with; but the sensation can also be achieved by witnessing these ASMRtists gently tap, scratch, and squeeze objects of various textures and consistencies. It should come as no surprise that we can deduce from the ubiquity and wild popularity of ASMR insights into human perception and artwork as a nuanced psycho-sensory experience.
Neuroscience reveals the overlapping, inter-relational function of the human senses and how these are tied strongly to mental-emotional responses. Similar to the links between sight and taste is the connection between sight and texture. We know that, just as the brain will predict taste based on the appearance of food, the brain will make predictions and trigger unique reactions to perceived textures in order to gather information and gauge the danger (or pleasure) of an object. When perceived concurrently with colour, as a University of Amsterdam study purports, texture significantly impacts the kind of response we have to an object, this becoming especially apparent when it comes to art objects.
Texture, therefore, is just as important an element as any to focus on in artwork. This should seem obvious to those who notice how frequently exhibition-goers attempt or succeed in touching the items on display. Even those who respect the no-touch policy, and understand how touching artwork can cause physical and chemical harm to art, find themselves wanting to glide their hand over the smooth, voluptuous surface of a Botero sculpture. Or across the many vigorous peaks of Van Gogh’s impasto, a term used to describe a painting technique where paint (usually oil) is laid on so thickly that the texture of brush strokes or palette knife are clearly visible.
Whether it be the actual physical texture of an artwork or the implied, illusory texture artists can create in two-dimensional works, texture is a major intrigue for the eye. The ability to vicariously experience textures through vision--as ASMR demonstrates--is a tool many artists of the past have utilized to explore new artistic territory and create a multi-sensory fascination for audiences. When the Impressionists approached sight as essentially the movement of light, their representations appeared to dissolve everything visible into light by the use of semi-uniformly quick, small brushstrokes. The resulting texture was unprecedented, and opened the door for other artists part of the Dada and Surrealist movements to use texture in even more avant-garde ways. Meret Oppenheim’s Luncheon in Fur is perhaps the most well-known example of an art object whose textural quality is at the forefront, generating an almost palpable tactile response in viewers.
The knowledge we now have on texture and art perception is useful on both a public and individual level. Programs such as the Touch Gallery at Louvre, Hands On desks at the British Museum, and the “Mind’s Eye” series at the Guggenheim, for example, allow visitors who are blind or have impaired vision to explore collections using touch and other interactive, descriptive methods. Some contemporary artists are even inverting artistic conventions by making pieces that are supposed to be contemplated hands-on.
From the perspective of an individual purchasing art, texture is certainly a determining factor to address with your advisor or decorator. Texture introduces distinct character to a room as it incites dimensional, tactile feedback in the mind. In the same way that subject matter and composition can be thought-provoking, or that colour and form affect mood, texture is capable of dictating one’s response to an artwork and the room it occupies. By weighing the calming smoothness or the energized coarseness present on an artwork’s surface, you might even discover an ASMR “sweet spot” that makes for the perfect addition to your collection.
Words by Michelle Costanza