Courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
“High Touch,” an exhibition of new works by six artists who look at technology through a human lens, is on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center through March 13, 2022.
The artists in “High Touch”—Danielle Andress, Conrad Bakker, E. Winslow Funaki, Diana Guerrero-Maciá, Melissa Pokorny, and Jade Yumang—embrace technology as a medium and tool to research, ideate, and assemble resolutely analog artworks. They create highly tangible objects that transform the virtual into the physical.
Courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Futurist John Naisbitt coined the term “high touch” in his 1982 book, Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives. He defined it as humankind’s counterbalancing response to the impersonal nature of high tech.
Naisbitt claimed that the appropriate reaction to more technology is not to stop it, but to accommodate it, respond to it and shape it.
“Situated where craft and technology intersect, where materials end and sensation begins, ‘High Touch’ reminds us of the power of art to touch us,” explains Kaytie Johnson, Arts Center senior curator.
Courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
The works featured in the exhibition—sculpture, mixed-media, and large-scale installations—elicit a palpable, tactile sense of perception that engages senses beyond the optic. They invite us to recover and hone our senses—to see more, to hear more, to feel more.
Admission to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, located at 608 New York Ave., Sheboygan, is free. Due to COVID-19, reservations are recommended. For more information, visit jmkac.org/plan-your-visit or call (920) 458-6144.
