((touch~))

“Sound is touch, at a distance.” This is how Anne Fernald, a developmental psychologist and professor emeritus at Stanford describes the significance of the sing-song-y way in which parents vocalize to their children across cultures. New technologies mediate our relationship with sound. On the one hand, they enable us to experience sound in absolute proximity, as with contact microphones that amplify tiny sounds and the resonant properties of different objects, immersing us in their own sonic world. Technologies also allow us to make contact with others at a distance, as we tune in together to a favorite radio station, call friends living far away, or listen to recordings of the voices of loved ones who have since passed away. Sound is fundamentally a medium that fosters communication, connection, and contact. ((touch~)) is an improvisatory meditation on the vulnerability of touching and being touched by sound.

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