University of Technology, Sydney
Faculty Member, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
About
I am currently finishing off a project on haptic (touch-based) technology financed by the Australian Research Council and called Skin Jobs: biopolitics, embodiment and haptic technologies. The aim of this project is: to develop a way of understanding touch as a meaning system, which can be used to develop and enhance haptic technologies. This aim is grounded in the following hypothesis: Touch is a meaning-making system that, like sight and hearing, is both physical and cultural; haptic technologies can only utilise touch effectively as a medium (of communication and information) if they recognise its cultural role as a meaning-making practice.
The project has so far resulted in 13 journal articles and book chapters, 9 conference and seminar papers, and 2 special journal issues:
• “Biopolitics of the senses: touch, sound and embodiment”, SCAN: Journal of Media Arts Culture, Volume 5, No. 3 (December 2008): http://scan.net.au/
• ‘Wearable Technology’, Visual Communication, Volume 7, No. 3 (August, 2008)
I have also curated an exhibition, The Sense of Touch (2009) at the Macquarie University Art Gallery, which is represented in the catalogue of that name.
Information about the project can be found at the project web site: http://web.me.com/acfrancis/Touch_Project/Home.html
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