Love at first touch: A collaborative approach to tactile art explorations

Some of the current art haptic practices offered to the blind use touch as a substitute for sight, contributing to perpetuate an ocularcentric and thus ableist paradigm in the arts. This article draws from the need to elevate the sense of touch to a genuine source of knowledge and eradicate the conception of being a complement of sight. In particular, the aim is to show how sculpture tactile encounters led by artist Lucia Beijlsmit can enrich the artistic experience of sighted and non-sighted participants and reflect upon the functions of touch in art appreciation. This shared exploratory exercise did not actually feel as ‘access’ but rather as a form of close and personal communication. This is why this project entails a notion of access not conceived as a service provided to fix a problem, but as a form of human connection.