Research on Touch as a Means of Interaction in Digital Art

This paper explores touch as a medium of creative expression in digital art. Important to this work is haptic interaction which takes place via a physical interface. Touch is not simply a tactile sensation, but also a way to explore an environment by combining sensory information such as pressure and temperature. Therefore an artist's creation can be understood by the viewer through the sensory information received. The main focus of the paper is on the sense of touch and it will help our understanding to investigate the following four artworks and corresponding technologies. The selected works include both visual and audio interactions. Touch Me concentrates on the sensory experience perceived through the skin, while A-Volve, Colorful Touch Palette and FuSA2 Touch Display are concerned with the virtual hand in technological systems. I believe that multi-touch, which enables a user to interact with more than one finger, will become the most important tool for experiencing sensory digital art in the future.