Workshops on touch at Michelangelo art college

The workshops consisted of a series of exercises, about half of them were physically and mental engagement, and consequently the opportunity to create objects.
From the very beginning, I explained that I was doing research on the subject of Touch, and that the workshops were designed around that.
Every morning we started with a Hand-Lotion Touch exercise , using different scents, like strawberry, coconut and rose. I told the audience which was dominantly male, that , if I had known the group would consist of mainly young men,  I would have chosen a more robust scent. Later I learned that the engagement of the girls is very difficult, because the shy away from organized activities. Hooray for Rosemary, who was the only young woman in a group of twnety men !!!This exercise is important, because it underlines the immideacy of touch , and this brief memditation is very helpful to become in the present. I explained that touch is a much slower process than seeing or hearing and therefore it is important to take time. The students, which were seated in a circle, in a very small library, which was allocated to us, were asked to close their eyes. I then let them touch a series of objects , a feather , a soft toy, a woven ball, a shell and a piece of wood, to become aware of Touch.I saw some of them making notes on their hands, because no paper was available. I have been hugely impressed by the inventiveness of all of them !!!The three subject I touched on (pardon the pun !) were
Dreamincubation, Creative Stimulation, Creativity and the Unconscious.The red line through all these exercises was, that they either created awareness of the senses, and touch in particular, or expanded creativity, to create an tactile object. It was not really important that all the Touch distinctions were explored; The main thing was, that Touch Awareness was created. so that they could apply that  in their work. I in the mean time , became increasingly interested in the Haptic differnences in the group among themselves which was shown in their interactions and the interactive'games' we played. Right now, I can not think of describing it in another way, but it was much more; It was a connectedness,a rich communication which went beyond lanquage .This manifested itself mostly in my exchange with the deaf students. I looked at their drawings, pointed out that one painted figure only had four toes,  which resulted in lots of gigles,introduced myself with a written note, and felt that there was real contact!