Essential to art: Hand, touch and the aesthetic experience

Abstract

In this article, I show how, from the very beginning, Aesthetics has opted for an intellectual consideration of the work of art, which allegedly corresponds to a pure inner experience. I explore how the external senses are minimized respect to the ideal creation and reception, with the sole exception of the “intellectual” ones—sight and hearing—being linked to the aesthetic experience. Among the “lower” senses—smell, taste and touch—the latter has been undervalued, and the role of human tactility has been considered ancillary. This has been important for the configuration of the modern concept of art. In exploring the relationship between aesthetic experience and the sense of touch, I demonstrate that prohibiting the appreciator to touch the artwork under his or her consideration is to perpetuate the same paradigm that considers the work of art an essentially intellectual reality. The review of these elements makes it necessary to rethink our current aesthetic categories as well as the concept of art itself.