The goal of the seminar is to interrogate the experience of touch in works of art and to explore the diversity of haptic affects across artistic media. With speakers from various disciplines and areas of expertise, we intend to discuss the elusive tactility of the arts in relation to technology, science, ethics, politics, and everyday life.

TACT: Touch, Arts, Affects - Second Seminar Series

Programme

7/02/2024 - Literary haptics

Thomas Constantinesco (Paris Sorbonne)“‘Miss James’s Hand!’: The Touch of Writing in the Diary of Alice James”

Respondent: Édouard Marsoin (Paris Cité)

• 5pm-7pm (Central European Time)
• In person: Sorbonne Nouvelle, Campus Nation, Room B115
• Online: meet.google.com/mth-rcxr-rjv

28/03/2024 - Visual haptics

Guillemette Bolens (Université de Genève)“The Cinematography of Haptic Gestures in the Era of Streaming Platforms”

Respondents: Martine Beugnet (visual studies, Paris Cité) and Aliyah Morgenstern (gesture studies, Sorbonne Nouvelle)

• 5pm-7pm (CET)
• In person: Sorbonne Nouvelle, Campus Nation, Room B115
• Online: meet.google.com/jmb-hqmn-hva

25/04/2024 - Tact

Katja Haustein (University of Kent)“‘Feeling for the Sense’: Tact and the Art of Interpretation” 

Respondent: Naomi Toth (Paris Nanterre, IUF)

• 5pm-7pm (CET)
• In person: Sorbonne Nouvelle, Campus Nation, Room B115
• Online: meet.google.com/uix-wicq-zgf

6/06/2024 - Tactile Fictions 

Erika Natalia Molina Garcia (Universidad de la Frontera):"The Phenomenology of Time and Touch in Alejandra Costamagna’s El Sistema del Tacto"

Yasna Bozhkova (Paris Nanterre):“Amputated Limbs and the Politics of Touch in Claude McKay’s Romance in Marseille”

Sarah Bouttier (Polytechnique):“Restoring Touch in Ecofeminist Speculative Fiction”

Respondent: Marie Laniel (Picardie Jules Verne)

• 5pm-7pm (CET)
• In person: Maison de la recherche, Salle du conseil, 4 rue des Irlandais
• Online: meet.google.com/quf-izdu-tgn