Reshaping touch communication

Abstract

This workshop aims to generate an interdisciplinary research agenda for digital touch communication that effectively integrates technological progress with robust investigations of the social nature and significance of digital touch. State-of-the-art touch-based technologies have the potential to supplement, extend or reconfigure how people communicate through reshaping existing touch practices and generating new capacities. Their possible impact on interpersonal intimacy, wellbeing, cultural norms, ways of knowing and power relations is far-reaching and under-researched. Few emerging devices and applications are embedded into everyday touch practices, limiting empirical exploration of the implications of digital touch technologies in everyday communication. There is, thus, a real need for methodological innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration to critically examine digital touch communication across social contexts and technological domains, to better understand the social consequences of how touch is digitally remediated. This agenda-setting workshop will bring together HCI researchers and designers with colleagues from sociology, media & communications, arts & design to address key research challenges and build the foundations for future collaborations.