Making sense
Our sense of touch is essential for our understanding of space and size. But we need it for sensing temperature and distinguishing surfaces and textures too. Without touching, our lives would be like wandering around in a virtual-reality environment. We need to touch to feel alive.
Learning about touch
As we grow, we learn and are told what not to touch, but sometimes our other senses warn us too. On occasion, all our other senses are collectively fooled, and we need touch to re-establish reality.
You can immediately sense a touch of life. But there are also times when you can feel a touch left by someone over time. A thumbprint in clay, transferred to cast bronze in a sculpture, left by an artist. Often an artist or artisan from another age.
Hard and soft
But a touch is not always soft. It can be as hard as a hammer blow or a mark left by a chisel. Using touch, we can read the mark left by someone. A sign that partly reveals how a thing was made. Touching helps us to make sense of things, revealing the maker’s story. If it is a story that has meaning for us, it reveals the sense in touch.
Touch lets us feel if something was made with care and attention. Helps us to confirm what we believe we are seeing. If it was made by another pair of hands. Hands with a creative touch. A touch that we understand and makes sense to us.
The sense of touch.