Tocar/Touch is the first collaboration between WSU Print Media professor Humberto Saenz and New Media artist/engineer John Harrison. Their work together is inspired by the possibilities they see for individual and collective growth resulting from the cross-pollination of their disciplines and ideas. 

Tocar/Touch expands on the discussion regarding the dichotomy between independent and collective behaviors. When the participants touch any print, all of the prints synchronize in rhythm and color, activating a collective driven through interaction. The work is interactive, responding as a collective when a viewer touches any of the prints.

Each print pulses with its own rhythm using a shared; smooth periodic trigonometric function that emulates natural behaviors, such as our breath and heartbeat. Similarly, our natural behaviors in response to touch might be considered as we touch these prints.

Tocar/Touch will be separated and shipped throughout the world for inclusion in the R&D Editions: Intersecting Methods 2016 Biennial Portfolio. In their new geographic locations, the prints will continue to function both independently and collectively across the barriers of geography, language, and culture. 

Materials: plastic sheet, conductive ink, acrylic ink, circuit board, microcontroller, Wi-Fi module, electricity

Humberto Saenz/ John Harrison