18-21 May 2022
TouchScreen presented a programme of exhibitions, screenings, artist talks, and workshops exploring sense perception as our common ground for experiencing the world. It was co-hosted by the University of Glasgow, in partnership with Deafblind Scotland, LUX Scotland, and the Centre for Contemporary Arts.
TouchScreen Exhibition
18-21 May 2022, Creative Lab, CCA
The exhibition presented a mix of moving image works as well as physical objects. The included work played with the interaction of time, space, and audio-visual practices, encouraging visitors to question their understanding – and acknowledge the complexities – of their everyday environments, be they built, natural, digital, or internal. The works were designed to bring attention to microcosmic worlds discovered via fingertips and the eyes of imaginations.
| Work | Artist |
| trees – the time it takes (2019) | Wolfgang Weileder |
| Anathema (2011) | Otolith Group |
| Touch Technology (2022) | Touch Post Covid-19 Research Team |
| Holding Purple Flowers (2022) | Issy McGrath & Azadeh Emadi |
| Walking (2022) | Bharoto Yekti |
‘trees’ as displayed in the exhibition. 
A still from ‘Anathema’. 
A view of the gallery space. 
The tactile element of Yekti’s ‘Walk Animation’. 
‘Anathema‘ as displayed in the exhibition.
Holding Purple Flowers – a short film by Azadeh Emadi & Issy McGrath
Developed in collaboration with our participant Issy, the short film offers a glimpse of the ordinariness, the mundanity of living as a deafblind person making sense of the world, inhabiting space through fingertips. The film was displayed as part of the TouchScreen exhibition. Watch it below.
The Unfathomability
of it All
20 May 2022, 5:30-8:00pm, Cinema, CCA
Celebrated artist Andrew Kötting presented an exploratory talk which draws on over 20 years of artistic collaboration with his daughter, Eden, who was born with a rare neurological disorder, Joubert Syndrome. Illustrated by screenings of works from throughout their collaboration – Kötting examined what their shared artistic process has revealed about the nature of perception.
Included in the talk were extracts from:
- Mapping Perception (2002)
- The Sun Came Dripping a Bucket Full of Gold (2014)
- This Our Still Life (2011)
- Diseased & Disorderly (2021)
Against the Skin Screening
21 May 2022, 1-2:30pm, Theatre, CCA
This screening presented an assemblage of short films which explored d/Deafness and blindness through various modes of social and historical perspectives. Different film techniques, perspectives, and narratives invited audience members to question how different sensory abilities are perceived, the nature of accessibility, and what it means to ‘fix’ another body.
| Work | Artist |
| Receiver (2019) | Jenny Brady |
| Captioning on Captioning (2020) | Louise Hickman & Shannon Finnegan |
| Silence (2020) | Nina Thomas |
| Blinded by Light (2000) | Simon Pummell |
| Listening in the Dark (2018) | Maeve Brennan |
A still from ‘Captioning on Captioning‘. 
A still from ‘Blinded by Light‘. 
A still from ‘Silence’. 
A still from ‘Listening in the Dark‘.
Touch & the Perception of Sensory Loss Workshop
21 May 2022, 3:30-5:30pm, Clubroom, CCA
This workshop was delivered by John Whitfield, Participation and Training Officer at Deafblind Scotland. The interactive session was informed by the perceptive experiences and capacities of Scotland’s deafblind community and interrogated the question how the interaction between art and technology can help us see our world differently.
Touching Codes Screening
21 May 2022, 6:30-8:30pm, Cinema, CCA
How has technology altered our perception and sensory encounters of the world? This screening brought together films showcasing experimental techniques and approaches such as hand painted animations in an attempt to obscure perception and provoke a state of memory and dream. The screening presented an enquiry into how digital codes can touch our imagination.
| Work | Artist |
| Lens Diary (2020) | Margaret Salmon |
| Entangled Nightvisions (2018) | Aura Satz |
| Scotoma (2008) | Niamh O’Malley |
| NotSomething (2022) | Emadi / Weileder / Kenny |
| Pulmo Marina (2010) | Aurelien Froment |
| Meaning in Action (2013) | Katy Dove |
| Hevn (2021) | P. Staff |
A still from ‘Entangled Nightvisions‘. 
A still from ‘Lens Diary‘. 
A still from ‘Meaning in Action‘. 
A still from ‘Pulmo Marina‘. 
A still from ‘Hevn‘.