Haptic Dissonance

I’ve just finished a big planty mural project, and I chose to create the artwork digitally. I replicated my brushes and styles from ‘real’ painting, and the process was efficient, enjoyable, portable… but I don’t think I’ve ever really appreciated how much I need the sensations that come with paint - the smell of the mediums, feel of the brushes, paper and all the different materials that come with the act of painting. Not having it, was such an odd experience! Sure it was fast, but not hearing the scratch of the brush on the linen on first stroke, or just being able to feel the right consistency of paint. The slight wobble of the stretched linen, the smell of the paint…

I thought there must be a word for this loss of sensation, a friend said it was ‘Haptic Dissonance’ - "the perceived unpleasantness of an individual experiences because using an object feels physically different from other cognitions held by the individual" (Balling, G., Begnum, A. C., Kuzmičová, A., & Schilhab, T. 2019) This exert was from their paper talking about older readers on new devices, but it’s definitely the same deal. I’m also a real book fan, the feel of the paper and smell and the existence of the book is essential to the reading experience for me.

I’ve pondered it alot since, and it works great and looks great. But I just love painting. The act of, and all the weird little sensations that come with it. Painting is ace.