Louise Spisser

Hands touching phone

Eyes looking at screen

Body? Shut down.

Feet touching wooden floor

Skin experiencing cold

Feeling? Disconnection.

Back touching wall

Shape and texture unfitting

Tactile stimulations? Absent.

Skin hunger manifests itself through the feeling that my body is either evaporating in virtual dimensions or getting stuck in tactile routines. A general sensation of disembodiment settles in, making me crave meaningful touch with others. Touch makes me feel real and brings me back to my body.

My project requestions the current dynamics and relationships between bodies, more specifically between us, humans, and the architectural bodies we inhabit. In my research, I explore the idea of co-habitation by defining and incorporating more empathic forms of tactile dialogues, as a way to trigger physical sensations. Touching and being touched, feeling, and being felt, co-habitation calls for subtle action, for sensitive and poetic movements, for empathic encounters. Being with, affecting and being affected, co-habitation asks for a physical awareness that goes beyond the self.

My installation is a proposal for ‘living with’ our shelters, for moving with and supporting one another. Made of fluid materials, it enables interaction and dialogue between human and sheltering bodies. By using warmth, flexibility, resistance, and instability as properties of fusion, I aim at creating a feeling of belonging.