UCL Museums & Collections present:
Touch and the Value of
Object Handling
Workshop 5: Knowledge
transfer in object handling.
Touch and the value of object handling
An Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Networks Scheme organised
by UCL Museums & Collections
During the winter of 2006 and the spring of 2007 UCL Museums & Collections organised a
series of workshops investigating touch and value of object handling in museums. Funded
by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the workshops brought together a diverse
range of experts from academic and museum environments, with a view to establishing a
network where information relating to the value of object handling can be shared and
developed. Participants in the project came from a variety of backgrounds and brought
with them a diverse range of expertise, research interests and museum access
requirements. Scientists shared their knowledge of the underlying psychological and
neurological mechanisms behind touch and sensation. Museum staff discussed the types
of practical applications of touch employed in museum such as interactive displays,
handling boxes and new technologies for interpreting objects. The union of these two
groups afforded a unique opportunity to understand the true value of object handling and
provide the museum world with a valuable toolkit for improving access and interpretation.
For further information about this initiative please contact:
Dr Helen Chatterjee, Deputy Director, UCL Museums & Collections
Email: h.chatterjee@ucl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 76794113
Workshop 5: Abstracts
Intellectual access through touch: A 'reasonable adjustment' for
disabled and underrepresented audiences.
Jane Samuels, Access Manager, The British Museum
A multi-sensory approach to learning is key for many disabled and underrepresented visitors to the
British Museum. The Museum's Access programme draws heavily from touch and handling to
break down barriers
and enhance the audiences learning experience. This presentation provides a brief overview of
three ongoing learning initiatives at the Museum where handling is an essential component for
delivering a successful service. The three areas for discussion include a look at the importance of
touch on the Museum's services for blind and partially sighted audiences; for adults recovering
from mental illness; and a recent creative partnership with Pentonville Prison. To end, a short film
made during one of the prison projects will be screened.
How accessible are museums today?
Marcus Weisen, Policy Adviser: Inclusion and Communities, Museums, Libraries and Archives
Council
Touch plays an essential role for blind museum and gallery visitors. Less known is how much
people with learning difficulties and deaf people value touch as an important way of relating to
museum objects. This talk places handling in the context of the whole visit by disabled visitors and
users. What barriers do disabled people face before we can even begin to talk about the
enjoyment of collections?
Findings of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's Disability Surveys of 2001 and 2005
will help build the picture. And so will findings of the Talking Images Research "Museums, galleries
and heritage
sites: improving access for blind and partially sighted people" published by RNIB and VocalEyes in
2003.
Finally we shall interrogate what it takes to provide meaningful handling opportunities and why we
must improve visual access.
Opening the Cases.
Barry Ginley, Disability and Access, The Victoria & Albert Museum
Museums are beginning to open up the cases and let visitors interpret collections through touch.
The V&A has taken a multi strand approach to opening the collection, through permanent touch
objects in galleries to dedicated outreach handling collections. With this in mind, should museums
be prescriptive in how they would like the visitor to learn about the object, or should visitors be able
to take what they want from an object?
TATA: Touch Access to Textile Artefacts.
Robert Zimmer, Co-Director, Digital Studios and Head of the Department of Computing,
Goldsmiths, University of London and Janis Jeffries, Professor of Visual Arts and Artistic Director,
Goldsmiths Digital Studios at Goldsmiths, University of London.
This project, involving engineers, computer scientists, and textile artists from MIT and
Goldsmiths, is part of a longer-term research programme, which involves touch in a way that
integrates vision and sound across the Internet. We aim to enable different groups of people
across a spectrum of interests to creatively interact over the Internet by feeling and ‘handling’
objects through their feel as well as the way they look and sound. This will provide exciting
opportunities for sharing haptic interaction with virtual textiles, potentially in a collaborative
environment. Textile is one of the oldest forms of communication, used to celebrate and mark rites
of passage providing traditional images of social connection. It is also one of the oldest
technologies in the world, dating from about 20,000 BC. In the 21st century innovation continues.
Textile has the ability to richly communicate through material and electronic devices, wireless
technology and intelligent fabrics for a variety of cultural, psychological and digital resource
application.