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

“请触摸”是一个邀请，游客欣赏和策展人想提供。然而，对于那些稀有、脆弱和有数千年历史的物品，通常不可能提供这种体验。该项目旨在展示如何为最具挑战性的古代文物提供触摸体验。大多数博物馆对考古文物的展示都是以玻璃后面的展示为主;视觉主导了感官体验。通过更多的多感官参与与文物建立的情感联系，可以更好地欣赏古代物品，并增强博物馆的参观。特别是，有些手工艺品要求触摸，但出于保存的原因，触摸是不允许的。该项目将特别关注那些过于珍贵而无法处理的身份标志和那些过于脆弱而无法触摸的物品，如古代服装。现代观众的期望正在从被动的观众转变为主动的参与者，该项目将提供适应这种变化的方法，使用数字技术连接过去和现在，克服古代物品与现代观众之间的情感和物理距离。该项目将开发一系列装置，在博物馆环境中提供触摸体验。该方法是多学科的，将涉及与博物馆专业人员开发的装置。开发的解决方案和想法将作为开发阶段的一部分进行试用，然后成为苏格兰国家博物馆内的最终公众“请触摸”活动的一部分，苏格兰国家博物馆是项目合作伙伴。重点将特别放在触摸物体的物理感觉上，而不是触摸系统与计算机的接口。该项目将集中在古代物品与技术的背景，因为这是博物馆馆长想要的。项目参与者计划的装置具有创新性，并将新旧技术与戏剧技巧相结合。所有装置的关键是提供感官线索，部署现代技术，但保持对案件中的对象的关注。提供的“触摸体验”的位置与原始对象的位置之间的关系以两种方式表现出来。在这两种地点安排中，公众似乎都有有趣的反应。他们的核心问题是真实性以及我们与跨越时间和空间的物理对象的情感联系。如果参观者正在处理物理或数字复制品，是什么让博物馆的触摸体验真实，以及如何弥合物理鸿沟。这些都是该项目将研究的问题。

'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.