Tactile Didactic
Convergences and interactions between art and science

The Atelier de Didactique Visuelle leads Tactile Didactic, a transdisciplinary research program. This program involves partners from France and other countries and studies convergences and interactions between art and science. It examines educational systems from Classical Antiquity to contemporary times, through the study of various media and the possibilities offered by each one for the transmission of knowledge via the image. It also addresses the applied and experimental aspects of research conducted with creators working within the field of study. 
The main objective of this program is to put in place, for the various eras and civilizations under consideration, an initial typology of the scientific image. At the same time, the aim is to understand how certain digital didactic tools – specifically those featuring tactile interfaces – question, prolong and crossbreed earlier practices of image-based instruction.

The Tactile Didactic research program has two components: a “basic research” component based on theme seminars and conferences, and an “applied research” component concretely rooted in day-to-day pedagogy, based on individual or group projects conducted by students with different partners.
This is a modular program. Each module will strive to tackle one of the issues that comprise the Tactile Didactic area of research. Theoretical and critical work, as well as the associated visual productions generated by these different modules, will provide opportunities for collaboration between educational teams and the students of the relevant partner training programs. A culminating event will be held within the framework of the different modules, in the form of a conference with guest experts.
The program leaders (art school teacher, university professor and researcher at the CNRS – French National Center for Research) ensure the coherence and historical argumentation of the issues addressed.

The actors of the research program are primarily the pedagogical team of the Atelier de Didactique Visuelle, as well as the teachers and students of the various French and foreign training programs involved.

The Tactile Didactic research program has the following ambitions:
– introducing knowledge (practices, challenges, history) about the systems of teaching science and medicine, in particular through images, to a wide audience;
– creating synergy between research teams and partner training programs, in order to examine the approaches to these areas of specialization;
– being proactive and innovative in developing a prospective approach to the evolution of professional practices associated with scientific and medical communication through images, in particular by integrating tactile didactic systems.

The Tactile Didactic research program receives support and funding from:
– the Haute école des arts du Rhin
– the Université de Strasbourg
– the CNRS
– the Ministry of Culture and Communication – Directorate General for Artistic Creation
– the Ministry of Culture – Secretariat General for Aiding the Development of Partnerships between the Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin and the University
– the Alsace Region–En Alsace Program
– the iCAVS, a research program of Lille on the Visual Studies leaded by IRHiS
– the Tomi Ungerer Museum/International Center for Illustration.

The four leaders of the Tactile Didactic research program are:
• Olivier Poncer, Teacher/Head of the Atelier de Didactique Visuelle of the Haute école des arts du Rhin
• Martial Guédron, Professor of Art History at the Université de Strasbourg, connected to the EA 3400/ARCHE (Historical Sciences Research Team), associated with the work of the IRHIS researchers involved in the Visual Cultures research area of the laboratory
• Catherine Allamel-Raffin, Lecturer in Epistemology and History of Science and Techniques at the IRIST (EA 3424 – Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Science and Technology) of the Université de Strasbourg)
• Stavros Lazaris, Researcher (CNRS) at the Mixed Research Unit 7044 “Archaeology and Ancient History: Mediterranean – Europe” (ARCHIMÈDE)