it is hot and humid. I have just finished my notes on the workshops I held last week. Thinking about touch, I realize that for me the whole area has become much broader than just touching objects. The more I work with people from a radically different culture, like here in East Africa, the more i get fascinated by the' Human Touch' also. Constance Classen questions in her fascinating book "The book of Touch ", Do we learn a 'Mother Touch' with a mother tongue ?A tactile code of communication that underpins the ways in which we engage with other people and the world ?' I am certain we do. Because people touch each other here in Uganda much more often , there seems to be a sense of friendliness around them. Touch smiles, and aggressive, uninvited touch growls and hurts.
What I will remember most of the workshops was the sense of respect for the programme, the total engrossement, the willingness to apply newly learned skills and information, and the laughter. We laughed because somebody gave a smart answer on one of the questions we shared, .we laughed because the human knot was hard to entangle, we laughed because i could not remember the first sentence of Chinese whispers, one of the senses we explored.The practical end results is a series of hand held objects, which will be put in a Touch Cabinet, which Mark , a local carpenter is working on ( I will write about him and the cabinet later )
It is all coming together....
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