Future Affair
Future Affair is a research and art project that allows two participants to give and receive affective touch over a distance using the interactive elements of the installation (sculpture and machine).
A ceramics sculpture works as a control panel for a caressing machine. By stroking the curved surface of the ceramics sculpture, one visitor activates the caressing machine for the other visitor by moving the three silicone fingers which are heated to a bodily temperature. The fingers are mimicking the direction of the stroke of the first participant, while moving at a constant speed of 3,1 cm/s which is the optimal speed to activate the C-Tactile Afferents (nerve endings in our hairy skin which respond most vigorously to slow light touch and are responsible for feelings of bonding). Future Affair Installation by artist Laura A Dima, December 2025,Photos by Fabian Landewee -
The machines don’t work without permission: the person in the space with caressing robot (in the image) can consent by pressing the cushion with the palm of their hand. The moment they release their hand, the silicone fingers move up and the sculpture in the other cabin will jerk away from one’s hand (using a force feedback mechanism) and eventually turn off. The lights in the cabins react too, leaving them both in the dark until permission is again granted.
Laura A Dima
Laura A Dima is a Romanian-born multidisciplinary artist based in Amsterdam and The Hague, in The Netherlands. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2015 from the Department of Inter-Architecture and recently completed her Master’s at the ArtScience Interfaculty at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) and Royal Conservatoire (KC) in The Hague. Her practice bridges performance, technology, and academic research, resulting in multimedia installations that examine intimacy, touch, and digital mediation from a technofeminist perspective.
Haptic Lab
Our Haptic Lab focuses on tactile and proprioceptive research by challenging authority and established norms collectively, through ‘craftivism’ and parallel-play.
We believe that exploring touch and movement is particularly relevant to understanding and celebrating neurodiversity, as individuals with diverse sensory processing styles can offer unique insights. With the introduction of the costume-lab in 2022 we discovered the need for a space where this research can be done collectively. Alongside fashion and textile design, this workspace has transformed to include spatial design and traditional crafts, all focused on how our body experiences its exterior.
Information
- 17th December 2025 - 15th January 2027
- Tuseday - Friday 12:00 - 17:30
- Haptic Lab
