Table of Contents

Contents
Preface. Interrupting the Networked Body
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Haptic Interfaces and the Quest to Reinscribe Tactility
Interface 1. The Electrotactile Machine
Interface 2. The Haptic
Interface 3. The Tongue of the Skin
Interface 4. Human–Machine Tactile Communication
Interface 5. The Cultural Construction of Technologized Touch
Coda. Haptics and the Reordering of the Mediated Sensorium
Notes
Index

About the Author

David Parisi is associate professor of emerging media at the College of Charleston.

Reviews

"Archaeologies of Touch weaves a careful history of haptic technology with a provocative analysis on the changing nature of how we recognize and measure touching. This allows David Parisi to provide the remarkable: a history of that which has always appeared just beyond our reach."—Phillip Thurtle, University of Washington"Archaeologies of Touch convincingly contextualizes recent forms of digital touch within an overarching history of psychophysiological and technological experimentation with the senses and sensory communication. David Parisi pulls together an impressive wealth of resources for scholars to understand how we ‘haptic subjects’ became haptic in the first place."—Mark Paterson, author of The Senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies

"Parisi provides an engaging history of how humans have interacted with a range of electric and electronic technologies to understand and explore how the sensation of touch actually works, and how it can be simulated. The book effectively highlights the need for more critical analysis of haptic technology and its future. The book is exhaustively researched and includes useful explanatory notes and images."—CHOICE"Archaeologies of Touch is a fascinating reading about spectacular experiments, forgotten appliances and scientists who have partially come to the fore."—Svenska Dagbladet"Archaeologies of Touch is a significant achievement in media research. It is lucid, scrupulous, rigorously grounded, and exceedingly informed without ever getting mired in high theory or inconsequential historical asides."—Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association"Archaeologies of Touch is a work of deep erudition and study, carefully plotted, and written with penetrating insight, establishing Parisi at the vanguard of the developing field of haptic media studies."—Media Theory"This is a remarkable book, solidly documented and will potentially enlighten a vast number of people working with cultural and social technologies."—Neural"Filled with archival illustrations, schematics, and images of the various lesser known technologies and experimental research that demonstrate the long history of research of touch, Parisi’s Archaeologies of Touch is vital read for scholars concerned with all things haptic."—New Media and Society"In thoroughly tracing the connections between touch and technoscience, Parisi offers a powerful and timely argument that encourages a serious reconsideration of touch's technogenesis."—Configurations"Archaeologies of Touch is an ambitious book chock-full of fascinating experiments and anecdotes."—Technology and Culture