Touching Buildings

Abstract

This essay explores the affectionate, erotic, and aesthetic relations between people and buildings of all sorts (edifices, landscapes, sculptures, forests, etc) as 'touching' posthuman assemblages. It also seeks to read beyond anthropomorphizing approaches to affections between humans and objects, or paraphilias, to question whether these forms of contact might be mutually felt and reciprocated through forms of object agency. Dwelling briefly upon Indigenous lifeworlds and more-than-human interactions, but also on performance art where it engages with buildings, and cinematic depictions of human-object interactions, it seeks to bridge a wide range of associations to find common ground even across vast cultural differences.