Imagined Touch
Installation
Imagined Touch the installation is centred upon two Deafblind women – Heather Lawson, a performer and Michelle Stevens, a pianist – exploring their profound experience of living in a world without sight or sound.
Touch is the main way that Deafblind people navigate, communicate and connect with others. In a society where touch is not encouraged, Deafblind people grapple with universal questions of isolation, access and human connection.
In this installation, audiences wear goggles and headphones that alter and restrict light and sound, and through intensified touch and tactile communication, will experience the artists’ stories in a profoundly different sensory environment and explore Heather and Michelle’s stories through an imagined touch of the senses.
Imagined Touch challenges us and invites us to engage in the work in an unexpected way, to alter our perceptions about how to not only experience theatre, but also how we communicate with each other.
Myronmy
Never has the power of love, kindness and connection to fellow human beings felt more important in breaking the ties of social isolation.
Australian Stage
Imagined Touch – what a heartbreaking title – is a piece that defies expectations and genuinely tests, disarms and surprises its audience.
Aussie Theatre
The rapid-fire exchange is confounding, funny and beautifully choreographed.
Real Time
Heather and Michelle’s stories remind us that giving up is not an option. They can’t remove their goggles or adjust the volume on their headsets.
Time Out, "The Ten Best Things we saw at Sydney Festival"
Sydney Festival Installation Partners: Accessible Arts NSW, Able Australia, The Deaf Society and Arts Access Victoria. Imagined Touch Installation was commissioned by Sydney Festival and funded by Ministry for the Arts
