On Art, Interactivity and Tactility

Erkki Huhtamo

1.

“I have secretly caressed paintings in museums, shaken hands with statues…” This line from a song called “The Tourist” recently caught my attention.¹ Is this an expression of projected affection? The confession of a madman? An account of innocent touristic pranks familiar from travel snapshots? Or is it a deliberate subversion of received codes of behavior with – perhaps – ideological implications? As it turns out, the protagonist of “The Tourist” is a loner, “a man lost in his hometown.” Touching paintings and sculptures is a compensation for the lack of a human touch that he has been searching for “in wrong places.” Touching the untouchable, crossing the line, avoiding the public eye. Our experiences in public spaces often include the temptation to ‘exceed the limits,’ at least for a passing moment. Such actions often involve the hand. I have met ‘normal’ people – including artists – who occasionally practice shoplifting. Not for profit or the need for anything – the stolen object is something insignificant, like a piece of gum. For such people the act of shoplifting is more like a sleight-of-hand that challenges the limits of the permissible. It is also a test of one’s agility and “guts,” bringing to mind the lonely endeavors of Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket (1959). More determined challenges are the “para-legal” arts of street graphics and graffiti that often spring from alienation. They represent the need to “make one’s mark” and to assert one’s presence while remaining anonymous, a shadow figure. Posting notes or spraying tags is linked with tearing down, covering, replacing. These acts are part of an unfinished/able urban semioclasm, a palimpsest taking place anywhere where bills are posted and bare walls – potential surfaces to be filled – are available.

(más…)