A General Analysis of the Effects of Three-Dimensional Tactility on Art Viewers in a Historical Context
Abstract
The skin, which is the sense organ with the largest surface area in the human body, constitutes the sensory source of various unique information about the outside world through touch. Tactile experiences caused by the sensitivity of the sense of touch can provide people with some concrete information about objects and surfaces, and contribute to the transfer of abstract messages that cannot be reduced to words in intersubjective communication. Considering the close relationship of the sense of touch with other senses, tactility offers the possibility of having unique experiences to the subject. The first perceptual contact of artworks, which belong to the world of objects, with their audience occurs at the sensory level. Sensory effects caused from the surface and form relationship, depending on these conditions, include tactility at different levels. When it comes to tactility, specific to three-dimensionality, sensory stimulations, originating from form and surface effects, are crucial. When the material aspect of the form concentrates on the surface, and hence stimulates the sense of touch, it plays a role in transmitting the form-content relationship to the viewer at the perceptual level.
This article, against this background, examines the psychological and mental effects at the perceptual level of the direct or indirect tactility, which originated from materiality of three-dimensional artworks, and concentrated on the surface within a general framework, by utilizing samples from art history. Its theoretical framework was built on an interdisciplinary approach, including the disciplines of art history, aesthetics, philosophy of art, anthropology, perception psychology and psychoanalysis. By doing so, this study seeks to reveal how the tactility specific to three-dimensionality can affect the viewer’s process of making sense of the works in a holistic perspective. The article, initially, focuses on the structural features of the sense of touch and its interactive relationship with other senses, and then examines the two-way nature of touch emerged in subjective experience. It also deals with types of information, which the subject can obtain about its surrounding environment by touching. This article scrutinizes three-dimensional sample works of the different periods, from prehistory to contemporary, after drawing the theoretical framework of touch, to concretize the hypothetical background. Moreover, the article highlights the various psychological and mental effects of the tactility on the viewers’ perception through the form-content relations, which derive from the plastic structure of the analysed three-dimensional works.
Consequently, it concludes that tactile intensity of the artworks for the viewer increased with material-based surface effects, and decreased in parallel to widening physical distance between the viewer and the artwork. Also worth mentioning that the tactility specific to three-dimensional works can lead synesthetic sensations in the viewer by merging with other senses. The history of art shows us that the viewer’s relationship with three-dimensional works based on aesthetic distance can change periodically between tactile vision and optical vision. This change is closely related to the social conditions that determine the form of aesthetic relations specific to each period. Even so, the direct contribution of tactility in transmitting the semantic world specific to three-dimensional works to the audience continues to be used by artists in various ways. Having said that, this article doesn’t demote tactility inherent in three-dimensionality, to something solely specific to the plastic elements of works. In addition, it puts an emphasize on the social and subjective conditions that shape the aesthetic relationship caused by tactility. In this way, this study aims to contribute to the limited Turkish literature on the subject.
Keywords
Üç Boyutluluğa Özgü Dokunsallığın Sanat İzleyicisine Etkilerinin Tarihsel Bağlamda Genel Bir İncelemesi
Abstract
Bu çalışmada üç boyutlu sanat eserlerine özgü dokunsallığın, izleyicide duygu ve düşünce yaratmadaki etkileri incelenmektedir. Araştırmada ilkin dokunsallığa neden olan dokunma duyusunun yapısal özellikleri ve diğer duyularla etkileşimine değinilmiş; dokunmanın algısal yaşantıdaki çift yönlü doğası ve öznenin dokunma duyusu ile çevresine dair edinebildiği zihinsel ve psikolojik yargılar değerlendirilmiştir. Ardından sanatta üç boyutluluğa özgü dokunsallığın, izleyicilerin algısını nasıl koşullandırabildiği tarihsel bir bağlamda form-yüzey ilişkilerinin analiz edilmesi ile somutlaştırılmıştır. Araştırmanın kuramsal çerçevesi için sanat tarihi, estetik, felsefe, antropoloji, algı psikolojisi ve psikanaliz disiplinlerinden faydalanılmıştır. Üç boyutluluğa özgü yüzey ve form etkilerinin dolaylı ya da doğrudan dokunsallığa neden olabildiği gözlemlenmiştir. Dokunsal etkilerin, izleyicinin eserlere özgü biçim-içerik ilişkisini anlamlandırma sürecinde önemli katkılar sunabildiği ortaya konmuştur. Yapılan nitel araştırma sayesinde üç boyutluluğa özgü dokunsallığın, izleyicinin algısını nasıl etkilediği, batı sanatında izleyicinin izleme koşullarının değişimi üzerinden ortaya konularak sınırlı olduğu fark edilen Türkçe alan yazınına katkı sunulması amaçlanmıştır.
Keywords
