Out of Touch? Digital Technologies, Ethnographic Objects and Sensory Orders

Abstract

This chapter addresses the apparent conflict of interest by investigating three-dimensional digital representations of ethnographic objects housed in a university museum teaching collection. Similarly to the Horniman hands-on gallery, the World Museum encourages physical, sensory and intellectual engagement with the collections, as well as an appreciation of the cultural and ethical sensibilities of particular cultures towards their cultural artefacts. Digital technologies facilitate many kinds of connections: connections between museums, visitors and scholars; between different institutions, and between scholars themselves. The collection also acquired several outstanding artefacts from the Cuming Museum in the 1960s which includes whale bone carvings from Alaska and shell bracelets from Papua New Guinea. The Horniman Museum's handling collection was established in 1969 and now numbers over 3,500 objects reflecting the museum's main collections in ethnography, natural history and musical instruments. Like the Horniman Museum space, the Discovery Centre encourages multisensory engagement with the objects.

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