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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00203
- Thesis Title
- sensate skins: Unfolding an affective, responsive aesthetics
- Author
- Dennis Humphrey
- E-mail
- humphrey AT sfu.ca
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- Master of Arts
- Year
- 2007
- Number of Pages
- 127
- University
- Simon Fraser University
- Thesis Supervisor
- Susan Kozel
- Supervisor e-mail
- kozel AT sfu.ca
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Thecla Schiphorst
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- School of Interactive Arts and Technology
- Copyright Ownership
- Dennis Humphrey
- Languages Familiar to Author
- English, French
- URL where full thesis can be found
- www.sfu.ca/~dhumphra/portfolio/DH_Thesis_v28_final_comp.pdf
- Keywords
- responsivity;aesthetics; phenomenology; touch; body;affect
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- This thesis explores responsive aesthetics in art installations—how individuals, through their senses, engage in meaningful, affective exchanges with a responsive artwork that focuses on touch and the body as the critical loci of reciprocity. Concepts drawn from multidisciplinary writings assisted in developing this responsive aesthetics: approaches to the body, lived experience, reversibility and intercorporeity from existential phenomenology; the construction of the self and sexuality from psychoanalytical theory and gender studies; models of responsivity, the relationships between haptic, visual and multimodal perception from physiology, human perception and art criticism. The construction and exhibition of a prototype haptic responsive installation, sensate skins, provided a means of embodying and exploring the multiple folds of responsivity and gathering engagent impressions on their lived experience.