Super Tactility Soft Technology

Do we long for physical touch in these digital times? Can the visual also be a tactile experience? What role does materiality play for designers and users today? We live in a phygital age, in which physical materials and digital code are increasingly intertwined. How do designers deal with this?

Super Tactility Soft Technology presented work by a selection of young designers from various fields: textile design, graphic design, jewellery design, digital design, product design and architecture. In recent years, they have all been part of 'We Are The Next Generation', the showcase for talent from Belgian design schools. Striking prints, immersive fabrics, playful installations and tranquil compositions come together in a diverse whole. In this way, the exhibition explores where the digital and physical converge in contemporary design practices, where boundaries between disciplines become fluid and where material, in all its forms, reveals its uniqueness.

The Super Tactility Soft Technology exhibition was part of the creative city festival WONDER. The theme in 2022 was 'Let's get phygital'. The participating designers were: Andonni Tsolingkas, Kuyckxmeers (Anouck Kuyckx and Thomas Meers), Atelier U+E (Ulrike Pittomvils and Elise Vanden Broecke), Benjamin Mengistu Navet, Jade Houben, Joanna Reuse and Magalie Delbeke, Laura Leynen, Lies Fauconnier, Michaela Armani, Nele Demeulemeester, Sam Pladet, Thomas Renwart, Tom Delboo, Yanis Berrewaerts.

Can the visual also be a tactile experience? How do digital images relate to physical bodies, objects and spaces? What do craftsmanship and skill mean in a digital context? Can codes and software also be considered craftsmanship? What role does materiality play for designers and users today? How can textiles contribute to a sustainable vision of technology?  How does the phygital era influence designers and their practice?

The exhibition was structured around seven themes that form a common thread throughout the designers' work: touch, digital, matter, physicality, craftsmanship, soft technology, and phygital. The works interweave digital technologies with traditional crafts, always with a great sensitivity to materials, whether wool, leather or pixels. They ride the wave of the pace and 'all-at-once-ness' of a global world or consciously choose slowness and attention as a response to a hurried society. In this way, they open our eyes to a more sustainable and enduring future.