Let\u27s keep in touch : conversations about access and tactility.

Abstract

Let’s Keep in Touch: Conversations about Tactility, a project collaboratively organized by social practice artist Carmen Papalia and curator Whitney Mashburn, presents conversations between Papalia and artists selected by Mashburn, in regard to tactile access of the chosen artists’ works. The project aims to challenge visual biases in museum engagement, through dialogue with living artists. Carmen Papalia takes social practice in a new direction as he applies it to the topic of accessibility. Using the tool of conversation, he creates strategic infrastructural activism and prompts exploration of non-visual perception. In this thesis, Papalia’s work will be examined and discussed with particular emphasis on the burgeoning field of tactility studies and Papalia’s use of conversation within social practice to critique the accessibility of institutions and societal barriers. Additionally, relevant foundations and examples in social practice, institutional critique, and disability studies will be presented