Touching the past: investigating sensory engagement and authenticity in the provision of touch experiences in museums across a range of media

'Please Touch' is an invitation that visitors appreciate and curators want to offer. However, it is often not possible to provide this experience for objects which are rare, fragile, and thousands of years old. The project aims to show how touch experiences can be provided for even the most challenging ancient artefacts. Most museums' presentations of archaeological artefacts are dominated by displays behind glass; vision dominates the sensory experience. The emotional connections built by more multisensory engagement with artefacts offers a better appreciation of the ancient objects and an enhanced museum visit. In particular, some artefacts call out to be touched, yet, for reasons of preservation, touch cannot be allowed. The project will specifically focus on icons of identity which are too precious to allow handling and items which are too fragile to touch, such as ancient clothing. The modern audience is shifting its expectations from passive viewer to active participant and the project will offer ways of adapting to this change using digital technologies to connect past and present and overcome the emotional and physical distance between ancient objects and their modern audience.

The project will develop a range of installations to deliver touch experiences within a museum setting. The approach is multi-disciplinary and will involve installations developed with museum professionals. The solutions and ideas developed will be tried out as part of a development phase and then form part of a final public 'please touch' event housed within the National Museums Scotland who are a project partner. The focus will be specifically on the physical sensation of touching an object rather than touch systems to inerface with a computer. The porject will focus on the ancient objects with the technology in the background because this is what museum curators want. The installations planned by the project participants are innovative and use a combination of old and new technologies with theatre tricks. The key to all of the installations is to provide sensory cues deploying modern technology but to retain the focus on the object in the case. The relationship between the location of the 'touch experience' provided, with the location of the original objects manifested itself in two ways. In both locational arrangements there seemed to be interesting reactions from the public. At their heart lie issues of authenticity and our emotional connection with physical objects across time and space. What makes a touch experience in a museum authentic if the visitor is dealing with physical or digital replicas, and how can the physical divide be bridged. These are the questions that the project will investigate.

Museum professionals
The range of 'touch experience' installations will offer a variety of ways of engaging with different audiences and deploy modern and traditional methods. Most importantly, these will have been assessed so that museum professionals can make reasoned choices in planning and executing exhibitions which provide sensory engagement with ancient and fragile remains. The network cluster and the more recent REACT-HEIF award have both involved a variety of end-users. The network members set the agenda as keeping the focus on the ancient object with the technology in the background. It was this input that led to the juxtapositioning and superimposing of real object and 'tactile experience' which is a focus of the present trial. Our project partner, National Museums Scotland, is in the midst of major rennovation and redisplay. They already have a relationship with a commercial company, 'Relicarte', and the National Conservation Centre. Thus we know that with established and continuing close collaboration the results of a public trial will be seen as useful to museum professionals and serve their agendas. The public event will be both a way of gathering research data and also an excellent method of dissemination and impact. The membership of the advisory and dissemination panel has been chosen to help with impact on the future takeup of the ideas generated by the project (see below).

Museum visitors will be the prime beneficiaries of this research.
Direct contact with visitors: Museums visitors who participate in the trials and see the installations will have an enhanced museum visit where they will see research in practice. Previous comments show that this is valued so the 'dialogue with science' element of the visitor experience will be made clear as part of published information for visitors and those taking part in the trials. The visit will also be enhanced by the sensory engagement with the touch experiences and whilst individuals may be comparing and assessing the installations it is expected that their overall experience will have been enhanced by touch experiences. The development of strong linkage between the touch experience and the ancient artefacts will allow the experience to have a measure of authenticity and thus enhance the visitor experience.
Range of visitor groups: individuals, families, schools, special needs (especially visually impaired). All of these visitors will interact with the touch experiences in some way. We are especially keen to contribute ideas for ways to improve access to visually impaired people. Coming after the paralympics, there is a mood to challenge accepted norms of provision and we would like this project to contribute to this shift in perception.
Future visitors: the overall outcome of the project is to see the ideas tested here ultimately put into practice in current and future exhibitions. This is why we have asked a key set of people from the UK mainland, Scottish islands, and Europe to join the 'advisory and dissemination panel'. Most are specifically involved in planning new displays for which they already have funding, or are in the midst of developing new initiatives or have ways of combining traditional displays with replicas because of their links across traditional museums and open air museums. They will engage with the project at planning stage and see the ideas in action as well as having access to the results.The project will be able to inform their future plans and impact on the future museum visitor. We see this set of people as 'agents for change'. They will have their own experiences of the installations which will be backed up by the published peer review article and by the website. The latter will have videoclips available so that others may see the installations in action.

The article and website will disseminate the research to the wider user group with the panel members acting as catalysts.