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Art Essay
Our Eyes Are In Our Hands
Touching is a form of extended sight.
This essay illustrates why artists Lennie Varvarides and Kazimir Bielecki created their new XR experience entitled DYSPLA_Touch, using volumetric capture technology, AMSR Performance Poetry and Human Haptics to explore how the power of self touch can develop a story narrative.
Our hands can show us things we have not seen and have not heard before.
DYSPLA TOUCH is an XR experience made up of 12 short volumetrically captured films lasting between 3-9 minutes and represent 12 different phases of a Neurodivergent woman’s experience of touch.
These mini films are experiments into poetic story narrative and audience participation, through a series of self-touch instructions that must be ‘performed’ while wearing the VR headset.
These instructions direct the audience to embody the story narrative through their skin — and into the lived experience of our protagonist. The action of self touch is designed to physically effect the audience and allow them a unique and physical perspective on empathy.
If a brave audience member wanted to consume all 12 films they would need over 108…
