Touch in Museums

Helen J. Chatterjee is Deputy Director of Museums & Collections and a Lecturer in Biology at University College London.

"The volume as a whole is an important examination on the use of object handling in museums. - Museum IrelandA book filled with theories and philosophies, visions of what museums can be, and academically derived understandings of touch and its value in a variety of contexts... a book that inspires. - Visitor Studies - Christine Reich"

• List of IllustrationsList of ContributorsIntroductionHelen ChatterjeePART I What Do We Mean By Touch?1 Museums, modernity and the class politics of touching objects Fiona Candlin2 Making sense of touchCharles Spence and Alberto Gallace3 Emotional touch: A neuroscientific overviewHugo Critchley4 Explorations in exploratory touch: The role of feeling in touching objectsFrancis McGlonePART II New Technologies for Enhancing Object Interpretation5 The use of haptic interfaces in haptics researchChristos Giachritsis6 Tactual explorations: A tactile interpretation of a museum exhibit through tactile artworks and augmented realityIsil Onol7 CONTACT: Digital modelling of object and process in artefact teaching Roger Doonan and Michael Boyd8 Out of touch? Digital technologies, ethnographic objects and sensory ordersGraeme Were9 A versatile large-scale multimodal VR system for cultural heritage visualisationCeline Loscos10 Touch technologies and museum accessRobert Zimmer, Janis Jefferies and Mandayam SrinivasanPART III Touch and Memory11 A memory for touch: The cognitive psychology of tactile memoryAlberto Gallace and Charles Spence12 Aesthetics of touch among the elderlyMichael Rowlands13 Reminiscence: Recent work at The British MuseumLaura Phillips14 Getting a handle on the past: The use of objects in reminiscence workBernie ArighoPART IV Therapeutic Approaches to Touch15 Enrichment programmes in hospitals: Using museum loan boxes in University College London HospitalGuy Noble and Helen Chatterjee16 See, touch and enjoy: Newham University Hospital's nostalgia room, Jackie O'Sullivan17 Measuring the 'difficult to measure'Caroline SelaiPART V Knowledge Transfer in Object Handling 18 How accessible are museums today?Marcus Weisen.19 The British Museum in Pentonville Prison: Dismantling barriers through touch and handlingJane Samuels, The British Museum.20 The amenable object: working with diaspora communities through a psychoanalysis of touchBernadette Lynch.The FutureTouch and the value of object handling: Final conclusions for a new sensory museologyDevorah Romanek and Bernadette Lynch.Index