Save the dates! Haptic Room Studies – Oct 2022

The OtherAbilities would like to invite you towards the first presentations of their latest experimental research project in sensory translation: Haptic Room Studies #1, #2 and #3 in October 2022 in Amsterdam and Eindhoven.

October 22nd, Haptic Room Study #2: Travelling Concert will be presented at Echonance Festival, Orgelpark, Amsterdam.
October 22-30, Haptic Room studies #1: Porcelain Membrane Wall and #3: Conversation Piece will be participating in the Embassy of Inclusive Society exhibition of the 2022 Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven.

Haptic Room Studies #1, #2 and #3 are architectural interventions designed for venues where works of visual or performing arts are presented. They comprise part of The OtherAbilities’ long-term research in ‘translating’ works of art between the senses. Specifically, the Haptic Room Studies can turn the sound of a film, a music piece, or a live conversation into a tactile experience of vibrations. In the OtherAbilities collective we are interested in sensory translation as an inquiry into the nature of our active experience of art as humans. Equally important, we understand this translation also as an experimental art and design proposition for the possibilities of including deaf/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences in the experience of sound in art.

We responded to the invitations of the Echonance Festival in Amsterdam and the Embassy of Inclusive Society in Eindhoven -2022 Dutch Design Week, Van Abbemuseum – by constructing in their concert and exhibition venues temporary architectural rooms with built-in technological tools for sensory translation. We invited composers Phill Niblock, Annea Lockwood, Yannis Kyriakides, Claudio F. Baroni and visual artist Yael Bartana to allow us to ‘translate’ their music and the sound of their films into a haptic experience. We wish to invite you and every other audience member to listen with your bodies.

We suggest that accessibility should mean inclusivity: that all kinds of bodies should be able to engage in the rich, conflicting, dynamic, personal and shared experience of the artworks, and fully take part in the social and intellectual discourse art generates. To achieve this for sensory diverse audiences in visual and performing arts’ venues, it is not enough to offer services such as guided tours or assisted-listening devices. Our inclusivity proposal is to reconceive and redesign the architectural space itself by means of inbuilt sensory translation technologies that can be used by both the hearing and non-hearing public.

Haptic Room Study #1: Porcelain Membrane Wall is a collaboration of artists Adi Hollander, Ildikó Horváth, Andreas Tegnander, Sungeun Lee and curatorial advisor Eva Fotiadi. The film Summer Camp (2007) is a kind courtesy of Van Abbemuseum and artist Yael Bartana.

Haptic Room Study #2: Travelling Concert is a collaboration of artists Adi Hollander, Andreas Tegnander and Sungeun Lee. The works Toegrooves by Phill Niblock, Dusk by Annea Lockwood, Manual of Forgetting by Yannis Kyriakides and J’ai connu by Claudio F Baroni are the kind courtesy of the composers.

Haptic Room Study #3: Conversation Piece is a collaboration of artists Adi Hollander, Andreas Tegnander, Sungeun Lee and curatorial advisor Eva Fotiadi.

Credits
Concept and production aHoll Studio; sound engineering and software design Andreas Tegnander; architectural design Yonatan Cohen; curatorial advisor Eva Fotiadi; project assistant Miroslav Zach; carpenter Giorgos Gripeos; graphic design Our Polite Society; manager Albert Manders; text editing Zoe Dankert.

Sponsors
We kindly thank for their support Echonance Festival, Orgelpark, the Embassy of Inclusive Society, World Design Embassies, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, Creative Industries Fund NL, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Caradt/Avans University of Applied Sciences, Amarte Fonds, Stokroos, Woojer, Sound Imports, Movement Exposed Gallery Space.

Above image
Porcelain membrane. Photo by Alina Ozerova.