Touching Technology

Around the same time Lisa gave us "Touch" as our next assignment I got a new laptop. This fancy device not only has a touch screen and a touch pad, but also a small pad that recognizes my fingerprint. I unlock the computer by touching it, so that got me thinking about how tactile our relationship to technology has become over the years.

It used to be necessary to give a computer written commands to get it to do what one wanted. As technology improved, this changed to using our fingers to point, swish, spread, pinch, wipe and drag on the screens of phones, tablets and other touch screens. Two-year old kids can work with a device just by using their hands, long before they can read or write. For me, it has gotten so far that I touch almost all screens and expect them to be touch screens, which is not always the case!

The touch screen surfaces bear the traces of our interactions with them, our fingerprints are almost visible. A fingerprint is the means by which the laptop identifies my as the rightful user. All this lead me to the idea of using a fingerprint motive in my challenge quilt.