Touch decisions: For heritage objects

Henderson, Jane ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3027-8452 and Lingle, Ashley 2023. Touch decisions: For heritage objects. Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 10.1080/01971360.2023.2175983

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Abstract

Conservators have a complex relationship with touching things. As the conservation profession looks to the future, conservators need to be, and be seen to be, co-creators of considered access rather than gatekeepers to collections. The benefits of touch can be physical and tangible, but touch can also inform our emotions, support empathy, or provide a connection. Touch can be used to understand how something moves or to learn how to manipulate things. This paper reviews conservation’s engagement with touch, attempting to extract a more nuanced understanding of the values that can be achieved through touching defined by context. By examining issues surrounding who conservation is for, the nature of touch and how conservators discuss it, this paper invites the profession to be more systematic about enabling touch experiences whilst managing these effectively with our conservation responsibilities.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	A General Works > AM Museums (General). Collectors and collecting (General) H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Conservation, touch, access, inclusion, tactile, handling, co-creation, gatekeeping
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
ISSN:	0197-1360
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 May 2023
Date of Acceptance:	27 January 2023
Last Modified:	12 May 2023 13:47
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/157574

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