Please do not touch?
How touch influences our emotions
Image credit: Ashleigh Smith, Story Inc
Smiley Quokka! Image credit: pixabay
We say we are touched when we are overcome with emotion – by a story, a kind word, a thoughtful action. We can be touched when something we see (like this very smiley Quokka!) makes us feel something. We feel happiness in our bodies.
You can touch on a subject or be touched and behave in a strange or unusual way. Through physical touch we experience the world with the surface of our bodies. We might run our hand along oranges in the fruit and veg section or brush past someone on the street. When we touch something or someone, we are both touched and touching – our touch is always reciprocated.
Signs saying "Please do not touch" are common in museums. But when we walk around an exhibition, things seem to cry out for us to touch them – even if people tell us “Don’t touch that!” – we are still tempted.
What makes us reach out and touch things?
Perhaps it is to feel a shiny object, the weight and fit of something in our palm, the bubbliness of a surface, the pleats of worn clothing – and a connection to someone who touched or held it a very long time before we did.
Touch is the first sense we develop. A baby explores the world through touch – they learn about objects, their bodies, their surroundings and human connection. They reach out to feel the fluffiness of a cat’s tail. We learn about things through handling them. There is a kind of magic to learning through touch – a sense of experimentation and adventure.
Image credit: Fun at home with kids
What might we learn about something by touching it? Is it heavy or light? What was it used for? Is it rough or smooth or sticky? Is it cold or warm? Is it made for the human body? What’s its story? How does touch combine with our other senses? If you pick up an object next to you – what would someone learn by touching it?
Museum objects are precious and need to be treated with care – and our touch can be damaging. But many museums create opportunities for visitors to (intentionally) use their bodies and senses to explore, mess around, and play. It might be in subtle ways like feely-boxes, lift-the-flap interactives, and discovery or tactile elements.
A simple tactile creative station designed by Story Inc for Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush
Image credit: Sara Tansy
Or it might be more extreme.
What would it be like to journey through total darkness using touch and texture as your guide? Visitors entering the Exploratorium’s “Tactile Dome” get to find out. Do you know what a painting smells like? As part of a series at the Met called “Multisensory Met" Ezgi Ucar created “scratch-and-sniff” paintings that made the things in them smell like they would in real life.
It is not just objects that can be touched – we can be too. A story can pick us up and carry us away. It can make us feel empathy, fear, wonder or delight. It is not just the story that is important: the way it is told is, too (even a story about a trip to the dairy can leave you hanging in suspense!). Story Inc has had the privilege of being told some incredible stories. Some stories are huge: like the journey of Gurangatch, an eel-like creation ancestor, who carves out the land to form valleys and rivers – a story that is a complex First Nations knowledge system that we were told as part of 'Burra'' an interactive learning space we designed for the Australian Museum. And some stories are small: like the world’s-friendliest-shark – the Port Jackson Shark – that makes friends with other sharks…and people!
What did you touch today? Did anything touch you back?
Image credit: Australian Museum, credit Anna Kučera
In other news…
Earlier this month, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush was re-awarded its ranking as a Garden of International Significance by the NZ Garden Trust and retained its status as a 6-star Garden of International Significance. We were proud to hear that as part of their comments, the judges commended the newly renovated visitor centre (Tāne Whakapiripiri) which Story Inc designed with the Garden’s team, mana whenua and local artists. If you live in, or are visiting Wellington make sure you go and check it out!
Image credit: Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, credit Chris Coad