Writing touch in textile: Talking touch in tactility

This article explores the ‘translation’ of live, extended voice performance, imbued with tactile intention, into an archival document that attempts to perform in a way that includes tactile communication. Through re-embodying somatic vocal performance within a format that includes hand-made textile art, the author traces the conversion of the live performance Soie soyeuse into an artist’s book. The resulting artwork takes a stab at talking about the live performance in a way that includes direct, tactile communication with the reader of the book. Placing this in a context of how else we might think about writing for, with, and about tactile performance, the article militates for a model of the articulation of performance as research that works directly on the haptic register of sensation, with all of the contradictions and difficult questions this might raise.