Andrés Gómez Emilsson | The Qualia Review - Episode 3: Tactile Textures @/Andr%C3%A9sG%C3%B3mezEmilsson | Uploaded April 2020 | Updated October 2024, 56 minutes ago.
Subtitle: From Domestic Cozy to Futurist Tactilism
On this issue of The Qualia Review we dive into the world of tactile textures. In particular, we explore the world of tactile experiences with non-negligible hedonic qualities (without delving into the explicitly erotic). Like sound and smell, touch comes charged with valence. The entropy/information content and emotionally arousing properties of touch are just one side of the coin, the other being whether they make you feel good or bad. The predominant lens we use to make sense of touch qualia in this video is by discussing the way in which properties like hair length, hair density, hair material, bounciness, and elasticity contribute to the "friction profile" in the form of patterns of attack, decay, sustain, and release. This may be the key to understanding the elusive quality of "smoothness".
Among other findings, we posit that friction profiles that give rise to extremely fine dynamic friction cascades provided by very small hairs of regular length in high density are interpreted by our skin to be "smooth". In turn, chaotic macroscopic friction cascades as elicited by longer hairs, especially of a fairly elastic material, are interpreted by our skin as "rough".*
We also discuss two interesting meme-plexes that value tactile experiences in an outsized fashion. Namely, Venkatesh Rao's "Domestic Cozy" (now also "Hard Cozy" - ribbonfarm.com/2020/03/18/domestic-cozy-12/) which asks us to consider that in the immediate future the tactile world of the home environment will seamlessly blend with the rough edges of work and soften our relationships with colleagues and friends alike. The recognition that the "Great Weirding" is insidious is nigh, and a homely retreat is in place for those who value quality of life.
The second meme-plex is that of Tactilism, as founded by Italian Futurist F.T. Marinetti in 1921**. He argues that the two main trends of the day, a majority that seeks material comfort, and a minority that is soaking in helplessness, ought to rise up to the challenge of creating a new cultural movement that embraces Futurism in a new form. Namely, via enhancing our communicative and expressive faculties by conquering new sense domains, starting with tactile experience. I fully embrace the call (albeit a century late) to assign tactile qualia pride of place.
See: The Manifesto of Tactilism (peripheralfocus.net/poems-told-by-touch/manifesto_of_tactilism.html)
Excerpts:
"In my careful and anti-traditional observations of all
the erotic and sentimental phenomena that unite both
sexes, and of the no-less-complex phenomena of
friendship, I have understood that human beings speak
to each other with their mouths and with their eyes,
but do not manage a true sincerity because of the lack
of sensitivity of the skin, which is still a mediocre
conductor of thought."
"While eyes and voices communicate their essences, the
senses of touch of two individuals communicate almost
nothing in their clashes, intertwining, or rubbing.
Thus, the need to transform the handshake, the kiss,
and the coupling into continuous transmissions of
thought."
"Tactilism, nevertheless, must avoid not only
collaboration with plastic arts but also morbid
erotomania. It must, simply, have as a goal tactile
harmony, and it must indirectly collaborate in the
perfecting of spiritual communication between human
beings through the epidermis."
"The identification of five senses is arbitrary, and
one day we will certainly discover and catalogue
numerous other senses. Tactilism will contribute to
this discovery."
---------------------------------
* This can ultimately be connected to the paradigm of Consonance, Dissonance, and Noise signatures developed by the Qualia Research Institute. But that's a story for another time. (see: qualiacomputing.com/2017/06/18/quantifying-bliss-talk-summary/)
** [April 13 Note: I’m sharing this manifesto because of the extraordinary extent to which it values an often-disregarded qualia variety in a systematic and enthusiastic way. It is in no way in support of the politics or behaviors of its author.]
Subtitle: From Domestic Cozy to Futurist Tactilism
On this issue of The Qualia Review we dive into the world of tactile textures. In particular, we explore the world of tactile experiences with non-negligible hedonic qualities (without delving into the explicitly erotic). Like sound and smell, touch comes charged with valence. The entropy/information content and emotionally arousing properties of touch are just one side of the coin, the other being whether they make you feel good or bad. The predominant lens we use to make sense of touch qualia in this video is by discussing the way in which properties like hair length, hair density, hair material, bounciness, and elasticity contribute to the "friction profile" in the form of patterns of attack, decay, sustain, and release. This may be the key to understanding the elusive quality of "smoothness".
Among other findings, we posit that friction profiles that give rise to extremely fine dynamic friction cascades provided by very small hairs of regular length in high density are interpreted by our skin to be "smooth". In turn, chaotic macroscopic friction cascades as elicited by longer hairs, especially of a fairly elastic material, are interpreted by our skin as "rough".*
We also discuss two interesting meme-plexes that value tactile experiences in an outsized fashion. Namely, Venkatesh Rao's "Domestic Cozy" (now also "Hard Cozy" - ribbonfarm.com/2020/03/18/domestic-cozy-12/) which asks us to consider that in the immediate future the tactile world of the home environment will seamlessly blend with the rough edges of work and soften our relationships with colleagues and friends alike. The recognition that the "Great Weirding" is insidious is nigh, and a homely retreat is in place for those who value quality of life.
The second meme-plex is that of Tactilism, as founded by Italian Futurist F.T. Marinetti in 1921**. He argues that the two main trends of the day, a majority that seeks material comfort, and a minority that is soaking in helplessness, ought to rise up to the challenge of creating a new cultural movement that embraces Futurism in a new form. Namely, via enhancing our communicative and expressive faculties by conquering new sense domains, starting with tactile experience. I fully embrace the call (albeit a century late) to assign tactile qualia pride of place.
See: The Manifesto of Tactilism (peripheralfocus.net/poems-told-by-touch/manifesto_of_tactilism.html)
Excerpts:
"In my careful and anti-traditional observations of all
the erotic and sentimental phenomena that unite both
sexes, and of the no-less-complex phenomena of
friendship, I have understood that human beings speak
to each other with their mouths and with their eyes,
but do not manage a true sincerity because of the lack
of sensitivity of the skin, which is still a mediocre
conductor of thought."
"While eyes and voices communicate their essences, the
senses of touch of two individuals communicate almost
nothing in their clashes, intertwining, or rubbing.
Thus, the need to transform the handshake, the kiss,
and the coupling into continuous transmissions of
thought."
"Tactilism, nevertheless, must avoid not only
collaboration with plastic arts but also morbid
erotomania. It must, simply, have as a goal tactile
harmony, and it must indirectly collaborate in the
perfecting of spiritual communication between human
beings through the epidermis."
"The identification of five senses is arbitrary, and
one day we will certainly discover and catalogue
numerous other senses. Tactilism will contribute to
this discovery."
---------------------------------
* This can ultimately be connected to the paradigm of Consonance, Dissonance, and Noise signatures developed by the Qualia Research Institute. But that's a story for another time. (see: qualiacomputing.com/2017/06/18/quantifying-bliss-talk-summary/)
** [April 13 Note: I’m sharing this manifesto because of the extraordinary extent to which it values an often-disregarded qualia variety in a systematic and enthusiastic way. It is in no way in support of the politics or behaviors of its author.]
