Touch
Touch
We can feel a grain of sand between our fingers, wet raindrops on our face, and the hard pavement as we walk. We're not always aware of it but our sense of touch helps us to complete most tasks and it's difficult to imagine life without it. Skin covers our whole body with thousands of polymodal receptors which puts us in direct contact with the world. It grows intimacy between each other and the outside, solidifying our surroundings.
Touch and emotions are intrinsically woven together. Different sensations of touch form a crucial part of our communication, sculpting our human experience. Touch binds us together to build trust and empathy, without it we can feel lonely and detached.
How does it feel when you embrace someone, feel the food you cook with, feel water over your body, the fur of an animal, when you can't touch something, can you feel the softness of a dusty pink color, or feel someone's gaze?
For this issue we would like you to explore the sense of touch.
Some things you may want to explore…
Touch as communication i.e relationships
Interspecies touch
Extension vs limitation of touch
Politics of touch in institutional contexts (i.e. galleries, museums)
Tactility of cultures
Sensuality of touch
Practicalities of touch
Touch and technology
Science of touch
Textures
Touch and movement
Interaction between mind and body
This is not an exhaustible list…
Submission formats?
Essays
Poetry
Fiction
Visual art
Photography
Video essay
Video art
Mix
Podcast
Apply to takeover our instagram account
Also not an exhaustible list
Submission guidelines
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Please provide a short paragraph explaining the work’s intent and how it relates to the theme (200 words max).
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Submission formats: Up to 5 still images, 1 short video clip (5 minutes max. duration), 1500 words max for written pieces, up to 3 poems or for an instagram takeover up to 5 post ideas.
Work does not have to be unpublished. But let us know if it has been published elsewhere so that we can give appropriate credit.
Submission deadline: June 30th 2020
Shortlisted candidates will be notified by early June.
Please contact l3m0ncur5@gmail.com for further enquiries and information about submissions.

“But precisely, when my gaze meets yours, I see both your gaze and your eyes, love in fascination - and your eyes are not only seeing but also visible. And since they are visible as much as seeing, I could precisely touch them, with my finger, lips or even eyes, lashes and lids, by approaching you - if I dared come near to you in this way, if I one day dared. (...)"
Jacques Derrida - On Touching, 2000
