TAKTILISME! - touchy-feely 4 ever

Fra Marinettis Taktilistiske Manifest, 1930:

I started by submitting my sense of touch to an
intensive treatment, pinpointing the confused
phenomena of will and thought on various points on my
body, and especially on the palms of my hands. This
training is slow but easy, and all healthy bodies can,
through this training, give surprising and exact
results.

On the other hand, unhealthy sensibilities, which draw
their excitability and their apparent perfection from
the very weakness of the body, will achieve great
tactile power less easily, without duration or
confidence. I have created a first educational scale
of touch, which is, at the same time, a scale of
tactile values for Tactilism, or the Art of Touch.

First scale, level, with four different categories of
touch.

First category: extremely confident touch, abstract,
cold.
Sandpaper,
Silver-coated paper.

Second category: touch without heat, persuasive,
reasoning.
Smooth silk,
Silk crepe.

Third category: exciting, lukewarm, nostalgic.
Velvet,
Wool from the Pyrenees,
Wool,
Silk-wool crepe.

Fourth category: almost irritating, hot, determined.
Granulous silk,
Plaited silk,
Spongy cloth.
Second scale, volumes

Fifth category: soft, hot, human.
Suede,
Horsehair or dog hair,
Human hair,
Marabou.

Sixth category: hot, sensual, spirited, affectionate.
This category has two branches:
Rough iron
Soft brush,
Sponge,
Wire brush,
Plush,
Human or peach fuzz,
Bird down.

Through this separation of tactile values, I have
created:

1. Simple tactile boards that I will present to the
public in our contactilations or conferences on the
Art of touch.

I have arranged the previously catalogued tactile
values in wise harmonic or antithetical combinations.

2. Abstract or suggestive tactile boards (hand
journeys).

These tactile boards have arrangements of tactile
values that allow hands to wander over them, following
coloured trails and experiencing a succession of
suggestive sensations, whose rhythm, in turn languid,
cadenced, or tumultuous, is regulated by exact
directions.

One of these abstract tactile boards made by me, and
that has as a title Sudan-Paris, contains, in the part
representing Sudan, rough, greasy coarse, prickly,
burning tactile values (spongy material, sponge,
sandpaper, wool, brush, wire brush); in the part
representing The Sea, there are slippery, metallic,
fresh tactile values (silver-coated paper); in the
part representing Paris, there are soft, delicate,
caressing tactile values, hot and cold at the same
time (silk, velvet, feathers, down).

3. Tactile boards for the opposite sexes.

In these tactile boards, the arrangement of tactile
values allows the hands of a man and a woman, tied
together, to take a tactile journey together and
evaluate it. These tactile boards are extremely
varied, and the pleasure that they give is enriched by
the harnessing of rival sensibilities, which will
attempt to feel more acutely and better explain their
rival sensations. These tactile boards are destined to
replace the brutalising game of chess.

4. Tactile pillows.

5. Tactile sofas.

6. Tactile beds.

7. Tactile shirts and dresses.

8. Tactile rooms.

In these tactile rooms, we will have floors and walls
made of large tactile boards. Tactile values of
mirrors, running water, rocks, metals, brushes,
lightly electrified wires, marble, velvet, rugs that
will give the bare feet of the male and female dancers
varied pleasures.

9. Tactile streets.

10. Tactile theatres.

We will have theatres arranged for Tactilism. Seated
spectators will rest their hands on long, running
tactile ribbons that will produce tactile sensations
with different rhythms. It will also be possible to
place these ribbons on small rotating wheels,
accompanying them with music and light.

11. Tactile boards for the improvisation of words in
freedom.

The tactilist will express aloud the sensations that
his hands' journey transmits to him. His will be a
free-word improvisation, that is, freed from all
rhythm, prosody and syntax, an improvisation essential
and synthetic and with as little of the human element
as possible. The improvising tactilist may be
blindfolded, but it is preferable to wrap him in the
light of a projector. The new initiates, who have not
yet trained their tactile sensibilities, will be
blindfolded. But, as for the true tactilists, the full
light of a projector is preferable, since darkness has
the drawback of concentrating sensitivity into an
excessive abstraction.