‘Fluid Touch’ explores the notion of touch within the photographic image. The project is studio-based and shows a new focus of Marta Djourina‘s artistic practice: from movement in the image to touch in the image. It builds upon existing works she has been developing since 2019, connecting natural light phenomena such as bioluminescence or the influence of water and sunlight on photo materials with historical photographic techniques and direct light exposures on analogue photo paper as unique pieces.
The starting point is the study of the image in an experimental way, through the analogue photographic technique in the darkroom, where the light serves as both the subject and the medium. This research is then extended by looking into fluid photography from the early days of photography, exploring scientific phenomena, to the modern day, focusing on the touch screen as the surface where both bodily and technological fluids meet within the moment of touch.
The sense of touch, the sensory abilities inherent in our fingertips, serve as orientation in the analogue and digital world. Long rooted in everyday life and firmly established as the key to the mobile phone, our fingertips also wander over smooth screens.
Djourina plans to examine both human touch and different materials and the way their touch can be visualised within the method of Kirlian photography, drawing parallels between touchscreen technology and the Kirlian device. The gesture of touch thus gains importance and attention beyond the purely functional context in our everyday use of smartphones, tablets or other devices with touch screens.
(Photo by CHROMA)
