"Buildings are received in a twofold manner: by use and by perception. Or, better: tactilely and optically. Such reception cannot be understood in terms of the concentrated attention of a traveler before a famous building. On the tactile side, there is no counterpart to what contemplation is on the optical side. Tactile reception comes about not so much by way of attention as by way of habit. The latter largely determines even the optical reception of architecture, which spontaneously takes the form of casual noticing, rather than attentive observation. Under certain circumstances, this form of reception shaped by architecture acquires canonical values For the tasks which face the human apparatus of perception at historical turning points cannot be performed solely by optical means – that is by ways of contemplation. They are mastered gradually – taking their cue front tactile reception–through habit."
Benjamin, Walter. 2002. The Work of Art in the Age of its Mechanical Reproducibility (Second Version),’ p 120. In Howard Eiland and Michael Jennings, eds, Selected Writings, Volume 3: 1935-1938. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Quote found on Words at Sea by Dianna Frid.
