Artist's Corner: Nicola Dale - Blogpost 5

 Fifth blogpost by artist Nicola Dale. See her previous blogs here.

There are arguments about the number of senses. Some say there are five, some twenty-one, others thirty-three, or more. I’ve been thinking about these differences of opinion a lot lately – it must be a reaction to the archive and the unfamiliarity of its objects.

I’m not sure I see the point of revising the number of senses upwards: I can’t help but believe that really they all boil down to one: touch. (We unconsciously know this already don’t we? We say that light hits our eyes; sounds pierce our ears; our senses are sharpened etc.)

At the same time as being particularly sensitive to touch’s extended reach, I am also aware that this sense is increasingly at technology’s mercy. The buttons that connect us are also a marker of distance. They replace physical contact and reduce all the glorious world of texture to a cold, impenetrable surface. Why are we drifting towards numbness over sensation?  What is the appeal of frozen fingertips?