Candlin, Fiona (2008) Licit and illicit touch. In: Touch and Sculpture, 2008, The Courtauld Institute of Art. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Museums are often claimed to be paradigmatically visual institutions, as Donald Preziosi writes, they are ‘the most extraordinary optical instrument of all; the veritable summa of opticality, of visuality’. They accomplish this paradigmatic visuality by enabling visual learning and subjectivity, and by suppressing other forms of sensory engagement, particularly touch. Taking sculpture galleries at The British Museum as a case-study, this paper examines the strategies and technologies museum uses to prevent visitors from touching the exhibits and asks: what motivates visitors to touch the exhibits without permission, does illicit touch qualitatively vary from licit touch and how do notions of illicit touch change our conceptualisation of the museum?
Metadata
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies |
| Research Centres and Institutes: | Birkbeck Knowledge Lab |
| Depositing User: | Sarah Hall |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Oct 2013 14:40 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:07 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/8378 |
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