Digital Touch - by Carey Jewitt & Sara Price (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Touch matters. It is fundamental to how we know ourselves and each other, and it is central to how we communicate. Digital touch is embedded in many technologies, from wearable devices and gaming hardware to tactile robots and future technologies. What would it be like if we could hug or touch digitally across distance? How might this shape our sense of connection? How might we establish trust or protect our privacy and safety?

Digital Touch is a timely and original book that addresses such questions. Offering a rich account of digital touch, the book introduces the key issues and debates, as well as the design and ethical challenges raised by digital touch. Using clear, accessible examples and creative scenarios, the book shows how touch - how we touch, as well as what, whom and when we touch - is being profoundly reshaped by our use of technologies. Above all, it highlights the importance of digital touch in our daily lives and how it will impact our relationships and way of life in the future.

The first work of its kind, Digital Touch is the go-to book for anyone wanting to get to grips with this crucial emerging topic, especially students and scholars of Digital Media and Communication Studies, Digital Humanities, Sensory Studies, and Science and Technology Studies.

Review Quotes

"An ambitious and far-reaching examination of touch's present and ongoing reconstitution through its encounters with the digital. A comprehensive, significant, innovative, and timely book."
David Parisi, New York University

"This is a comprehensive, lively, and accessible book about the technologies, ethics, and social aspects of digital touch. Years of collaborations and hands-on experience with design and technology projects are revealed through vignettes and examples, culminating in a must-read manifesto."
Mark Paterson, University of Pittsburgh

About the Author

Carey Jewitt is Professor of Technology and Interaction at University College London.
Sara Price is Professor of Digital Learning at University College London.