Light touches

For Timo:

"Text messages also carry a tactile quality. Like the photograph, the text message is a kind of pointing, saying 'I am here' or 'look at this'. Texting is also an accumulation of light touches – presses on a keypad rather than the click of a camera shutter. Even more, text messages often arrive with a tactile sensation, a vibration that acts like a tap on the shoulder.



Text messages carry their tactile experience with them. They are the product of touching, announce themselves with touches, are revealed by touches and erased with a further touch. We no longer carry photographs in lockets, trapped in jewellery worn next to the skin, but remember those close to us through their words, transmitted in 160 characters or less from their hand to ours."

-- Matt Locke, Light touches – text messaging, intimacy & photography

'Texting: Grand Street' photo by moriza