Touch as unique source of knowledge

20 mei 2026

If touch becomes the point of departure for art, space opens up for other forms of knowledge and understanding. This is demonstrated by HKU artist, lecturer and researcher Marloeke van der Vlugt in her dissertation Touching (the) Strangeness – Exploring Touching as Methodology in Artistic Research, which she defended on May 19th at the University of Humanistic Studies.

Marloeke van der Vlugt (1971) is the first PhD candidate to defend a dissertation within the framework of Meaningful Artistic Research (MAR). MAR is the collaborative artistic research initiative between Utrecht University of the Arts (HKU) and the University for Humanistic Studies (UvH).

It starts with touch

Marloeke, a lecturer on the BA programme Interactive Performance Design and the MA programme Scenography, as well as a researcher within the professorship Expanding Artistic Practices, began her artistic research track in 2018 with one simple question: what happens when art is not only viewed, but also touched; when tactility, proximity and bodily alignment become the point of departure? During the Covid pandemic, a time in which touch became associated with risk and taboo, she instead started looking for ways of activating tactile sensations.

Sculptural spheres

Marloeke’s performative experiment Thresholds of Touch, which forms part of her research, explores the importance of the sense of touch. Through her ‘tactile objects’ – sculptural spheres filled with soft materials in a variety of textures – she invites participants to reactivate their sense of touch, and subsequently to experience what this evokes within themselves and others.

The Impact of touch

“The sense of touch is one of the most important senses we are born with,” says Marloeke. “Yet while, as babies, we instinctively grasp everything and put things in our mouth, this behaviour is quickly unlearned. ‘Don’t touch’ is a phrase many of us hear repeatedly throughout childhood. In the arts too, aesthetic distance is encouraged, while seeing and listening gain far more prominent roles. In museums, everything is neatly displayed behind glass, and in theatres, audiences are seated at an appropriate distance from the performers. And yet there are few experiences as direct and impactful as touch.” Van der Vlugt seeks what she calls ‘resensibilisation’: a renewed attentiveness to touch, not only for her audience but also for herself as a maker. “How do I touch this world, and how does the world touch me?”

'How do I touch this world, and how does the world touch me?'

Touching (the) Strangeness

At the centre of her research lies an ongoing exploration of the concept Touching (the) Strangeness. Marloeke explains: “By strangeness, I refer to the experience that the body sometimes follows its own course: unpredictable, not entirely controllable, moving beyond the will. These signs indicate that the body possesses its own form of knowledge. Phenomenologically, this relates to the enlived body, which can at times feel like ‘the other’; biologically, it resonates with the autonomous nervous system, which continuously regulates us, often beyond conscious control. What happens if, instead of suppressing such movements, we observe them and investigate what emerges through their unpredictability?”

Exhibition at Landhuis Oud Amelisweerd

After the PhD defence, the exhibition Touching (the) Strangeness is now presented at Landhuis Oud Amelisweerd. The exhibition features a selection of the experiments Marloeke developed throughout her research. It unfolds as a relational, time-based and embodied artistic practice, in which questions of care and ethics also play a significant role. The exhibition remains open to visitors until 31 May.

Meaningful Artistic Research

Meaningful Artistic Research is grounded in the conviction that artistic and creative making processes generate unique forms of knowledge. This knowledge is of great importance in imagining and developing caring, just, and sustainable ways of living together. Alongside seven ongoing artistic PhD trajectories, MAR is helping to build a vibrant artistic research community and to further develop education in this field.

Gaby Allard, Chair of the Executive Board of HKU: “We are immensely proud of Marloeke van der Vlugt as our first doctoral candidate within Meaningful Artistic Research. Her dissertation on the impact of touch and the activation of tactile sensations sets an example for artistic research, in which the analysis of emotions, experiences and imagination gives rise to new perspectives on art, education and society.”