Richardson Ingrid, Wilken Rowan
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
Mob Media Commun. 2023 May;11(2):312-327. doi: 10.1177/20501579221117434. Epub 2022 Sep 1.
In this article, we explore the tension between the significance of touch as a vital sensory modality of human experience and how, with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, proximity and (tactile) intimacy with other bodies in urban and domestic spaces becomes fraught with the risk of viral contagion. Informed by haptic media studies, the corporeal or sensory turn in contemporary theory, and phenomenology-informed mobile media studies, we examine the possible impacts for mobile device use of the risks of viral contagion associated with our routinized uses of haptic interfaces. We also examine the role and possibility of mobile haptics and the touchscreen in these contexts, and our capacity-via embodied and material metaphor-to extend corporeal reach through the mobile interface. Our contention is that, while the "stand in" for touch that mobile media offers may be perpetually incomplete, the "as-if" structure of habitual experience can play a significant role in narrowing the sensorial gap.
在本文中，我们探讨了触摸作为人类体验的一种重要感官方式的重要性与当下新冠疫情之间的紧张关系，即在城市和家庭空间中，与他人身体的接近以及（触觉上的）亲密接触如何因病毒传播风险而变得充满危机。以触觉媒体研究、当代理论中的身体或感官转向以及现象学视角的移动媒体研究为依据，我们审视了与触觉界面的常规使用相关的病毒传播风险对移动设备使用可能产生的影响。我们还研究了移动触觉和触摸屏在这些情境中的作用及可能性，以及我们通过具身和物质隐喻经由移动界面扩展身体触及范围的能力。我们的论点是，虽然移动媒体所提供的触摸“替身”可能永远不完整，但习惯性体验的“仿佛”结构在缩小感官差距方面可以发挥重要作用。
