Power of Touch

Elizabeth Pye is Senior Lecturer at the University College London Institute of Archaeology. She coordinates the Institute's Heritage Studies Research Group and its masters program in conservation. She is editor of Caring for the Past: Issues in Conservation for Archaeology and Museums (2000)

• Introduction: The Power of Touch, Elizabeth Pye; Part 1 Science of Touch; Chapter 1 Weighing Up the Value of Touch, Alan Wing, Christos Giachritsis, Roberta Roberts; Chapter 2 Making Sense of Touch: A Multisensory Approach to the Perception of Objects, Charles Spence; Part 2 History Of Touch; Chapter 3 Archaeology of Touch: Babylonian Magic and Healing, Mark Geller; Chapter 4 For Your Eyes Only? the Magic Touch of Relics, Jan Geisbusch; Chapter 5 Don’t Touch! Hands off! art, Blindness and the Conservation of Expertise, Fiona Candlin; Part 3 Professional Touch; Chapter 6 Exploring the Role of Touch in Connoisseurship and the Identification of Objects, Sally MacDonald; Chapter 7 Understanding Objects: The Role of Touch in Conservation, Elizabeth Pye; Part 4 Touch and Memory; Chapter 8 The Elderly as ‘Curators’ in North London, Michael Rowlands; Chapter 9 Easing the Transition: Using Museum Objects with Elderly People, Claire Jacques; Part 5 Touch and Memory; Chapter 10 The Touch Experience in Museums in the UK and Japan, Julia Cassim; Chapter 11 Touching Art, Touching You: Blindart, Sense & Sensuality, Sharareh Khayami; Chapter 12 Learning Through Touch, Tara Trewinnard-Boyle, Emily Tabassi; Chapter 13 To Play or Not to Play: Making a Collection of Musical Instruments Accessible, Andrew Lamb; Chapter 14 Collaborative Touch: Working with a Community Artist to Restore a Kwakwaka’wakw Mask, Jessica Johnson; Part 6 Virtual Touch; Chapter 15 Touching Ghosts: Haptic Technologies in Museums, David Prytherch, Marie Jefsioutine; Chapter 16 Exploring Virtual Touch in the Creative Arts and Conservation, Angela Geary;

"This collection of essays looks at not only the past and present of touch in museums, but also the future as new pathways are discussed through both tactical and virtual developments. As museums tiptoe carefully into a world where fuller access and transparency are the battle cries, The Power of Touch blazes forward into this arena. Though the ideas presented may be polemical, they are all certainly thought- and discussion- provoking and a conscientious reader may find plenty of reasons to change their stance on touch in a museum context. - -Katherine Weikert, Portland Art Museum and Registrars' Quarterly "Offers the reader a range of ways to approach touch in museums and will appeal to museum professionals, students, artists, and groups who campaign for increased access."-- Sense and Society