The Haptic Image in Brian Cosgrove and Richard Hall’s Animations

I. The Haptic Image

Haptic is a term used to describe the experience of touch. In most fields it refers to a generalised tactile sensibility. For example in Child Psychology, haptic is defined as ‘the perceptual experience that results from active exploration of objects by touch’ (Vasta et al. 1999, p.201). In recent art history and media theory, haptic is a term that has come to articulate the perception of touch through any experiential means. So one may have a haptic experience through vision, sound, taste etc., without any exclusive use of the touch sense itself.

Haptic visuality (Marks 2002, p. xiii) or viewing, detaches this sense of touch in order to focus exclusively on that which is experienced via vision. In other words one can experience the sensation of touch through vision alone. This application of the term has its basis in art history (Gandelman 1991, p.5) but has more recently also been adapted to apply to the moving image and cinema theory. For example, an image of skin being cut, or an intimate portrayal of the texture of a stone wall facilitate an haptic viewing. The eye is able to relate in the brain the process of a tactile sensation without the viewer’s physical touch sense (i.e. the skin) playing any part in the process.

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