An Archive of Touch

An Archive of Touch (2024) is inspired by the notion that the phenomenon, perception, and materiality of sound is only a shorthand for touch. Sound is touch at a distance—a cognitive effect tracing presence, movement, and friction through spacetime—and as with touch, sound is inherently reflexive and reciprocal; to hear is to be heard. This multichannel installation explores the threshold between sonic and tactile perception, instrumentalizing the tangibility of microphones, speakers, and their capacity for transduction as well as diffusion to reconceptualize sound as an embodied archive.

Joshua Biggs is a sound artist from Cape Town, South Africa, whose work centers around gathering, recording, and improvising with found sounds and instruments. Drawing from theories of music cognition, sound- and media studies, Biggs makes acousmatic and electroacoustic music exploring how embodiment, enculturation, and self-expression surface through listening, composing, and performing practices.

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