On May 10th, Thomas Conner and I presented our work on haptic holograms at Uncommon Senses V: https://centreforsensorystudies.org/uncommon-senses-v-sensing-the-social-the-environmental-and-across-the-arts-and-sciences/

In the presentation we extended on our published work in the area by considering new case studies and proposed a new theoretical concept, “technical material” to try and account for these emerging media forms.

Two technologies are converging — midair haptics and digital holograms — in service of a project not only to materialize touch but to program it. In this presentation, we examine the emergence of haptic holograms to interrogate the sociotechnical construction of liminal sensory experiences that defy easy categorization as either tactile or visual. These new systems of calculating and projecting sensory experience intersect with and challenge social constructions of the biological senses and sense-making. Bringing together theories of touch and haptics with the media philosophy of Vilém Flusser — namely, his concept of the “technical image” and his own thinking on embodiment and gesture — we posit the notion of the “technical material.” The projection of 3D objects into space not just visually but haptically mixes up ideas, representations, experiences, and ontologies about images and objects, offering a new way of thinking about the social construction of senses. Just as viewing a digital image means viewing a computed abstraction, so does touching what these systems calculate and produce as a surface. The resulting new experiences are of something other than a hologram or even an image — they are unique liminal spaces for the production and experience of new sensory experiences and ways of knowing.