feel it...

another great exhibition catalog from the museum of contemporary crafts new york 1969. the exhibition was called "feel it" and seems to have been a series of interactive environments involving a whole lot of tactile works (pre-dating the appearance of the term "interactive" in the artworld by about 20 years...). the show was put together by architect gustaf clason and architect/exhibition designer eric sorling. here's a bit of their introduction:

"our way of life dulls our senses and inhibits our communications with one another. our conventionalism demonstrably produces negative effects and reduces human qualities. our sensibility is threatened, supressed, inpaired. "feel it" has come about as a test room for sensual experiences and emotional states, or as an exercise instrument for making use of human creative resources regardless of mental handicaps".

the touchy feely show involved a small group of hip young swedish designers and artists who created environments to be experienced through temperature, light, sound, and of course touch. unfortunately the catalog has no pictures in it; but there are some nice cryptic and poetic descriptions such as this one for the area called darling: "vibrating column to squeeze. shut the eyes and "go flying". can be used in psychic-physical therapy and for training sensory perception."

perhaps to compensate for the lack of pictures, the catalog does have a few nice surprises - a handy wipe and a comb attached to the back cover to clean up after feelin' it; and a 7" record of sounds from the andromatic, a "sculptural panel for your eyes and ears. sound light and color are blended and guided by andomatic, an electronic terminal that produces impulses through automatic or manual programming". the sounds were created by ralph lundsten and leo nilson (in 1969 the pair also created "blue bird" - a two channel electronic composition broadcast from a series of giant air ballons floating over the city of ostersund!), with technical design by the great erkki kurenniemi! nice futuristic electronics from the pre-digital age...click to listen.

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