Yuko Okamoto
Senior Curator, Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art

“You won’t understand until you touch it.” This is what one participant said in the museum’s Learning Program*1. This program, which combined touching and seeing, as well as appreciation and creation, was an experimental extension of the museum’s programs using senses other than sight. The program followed three steps: 1) Seeing Taro Kitagawa’s The World of the Hand Thinking*2 with the eyes and touching it with the entire palms, 2) Touching eight types of paper*3 in a box with fingertips to discover personal preferences, and 3) Challenging participants to create bookmarks with their favorite textures.

Our exploration of sensory programs beyond sight began in 2010, when we came into contact with the Okayama Prefectural School for the Blind (hereafter, Blind School). In the following year, we launched school programs with the slogan “Let’s try it first” for both parties. The school programs for the visually impaired began with a program where both visually impaired and sighted people viewed artwork displayed with the assumption that it would be viewed, while discussing it together*4. Since then, through trial and error in these programs, we developed educational materials (hands-on) for the museum, and touch-based exhibitions began to take shape, gradually evolving into programs emphasizing the act of touching*5

The encounter with the Blind School sparked the creation of sensory-based programs, initially aimed at visually impaired students, and later expanding into public programs for everyone, regardless of visual ability. These public programs use non-visual senses and are designed so that all participants, whether visually impaired or not, can touch, create, and explore objects (such as tactile diagrams, materials, and artwork) together in complete darkness, guided by facilitators who are themselves visually impaired. This program, which is based on the concept that all participants, regardless of whether they are visually impaired or not, do not use their sight. This was held several times under the name of “Darkness Workshop.” For example, in the “Darkness Workshop / Try Touching, See!” (held on March 23–24, 2019), participants commented, “It was fun to enjoy the picture (tactile copy) by feeling every corner of the paper while imagining various scenes” (visually impaired, blind, adult), and “I concentrated on my fingertips and tried to create an image in my mind, but it didn’t go well. When I looked at the artwork again in the exhibition room, I realized I was able to see things I usually overlooked” (sighted, adult).

Similarly, the “Darkness Workshop / Touch, Create, See” (held on March 19–20, 2022) involved each participant using about 10kg of clay. Comments included, “I thought the darkness would be scary because I couldn’t see anything, but when I experienced it, I found it surprisingly exciting and thrilling” (sighted, third grader), “I noticed new sensations, like feeling things with only my hands without seeing them and the sounds that I heard with my ears” (sighted, fourth grader), and “I usually worry about others watching us when I go out with my young children, but today’s experience was very enjoyable because it freed me from the idea of seeing and being seen” (sighted, general public). This led to a more advanced program, the “Darkness Workshop / Touch, Talk, See” (held on October 8–9, 2022), where participants touched artwork and discussed them with both artists and visually impaired facilitators.

The Darkness Workshop offers the advantage that, by shutting out all visual information, participants—regardless of visual ability—can equally engage with the program using other senses rather than just sight. On the other hand, sighted participants, who live in a world where vision dominates, may find this experience unique. Therefore, we have planned an experimental program that combines touching and seeing, appreciation and creation. This is the program introduced at the beginning of this article.

In the program, we saw visitors try to keep trying to touch the artwork that had a “good sensation” for them with the palms of their hands, compare the feeling of touch between the artwork, and look at the artwork while exploring what is comfortable to touch for them. Some gently put their cheeks on the artwork or held them in their arms to appreciate their comfort, and some leaned against the walls of the museum to enjoy the texture of the material (mannari stone) with their entire bodies. Comments such as, “If I were to see, I’d prefer this one, but if I were to touch, I’d prefer this one,” “When I touched it, it felt cold and dry,” and “This pain might be addictive,” “Some pieces that looked slippery actually felt smooth and dry or sticky and wet when I touched it,” “Hugging with both arms. This feeling is similar to the feeling I had when I held my young child in my arms! That’s why I like the size and feeling of this work the best” were shared. Participants, each finding their own words, discovered that “You won’t understand until you touch it” — a realization that resonated strongly with sighted participants living in a world dominated by vision.”

Programs that use senses other than vision stimulate different sensations in sighted individuals, who live in a visually dominant world. These experiences can lead to new ways of seeing and thinking, or help individuals recognize the biases that arise from living in a vision-centric society. Such programs may open doors to perspectives and ways of thinking that release us from these biases. Moreover, programs that use non-visual senses, in which everyone, regardless of visual abilities, can participate, create opportunities for interaction. By engaging with the perspectives and ways of thinking of others who are different, participants may also expand their own “world” which is shaped by their own perspectives and thinking.

• *1 Junior Museum Lab “Feel and Create – Crafting Tactile Bookmarks” (Held on July 1st and 2nd, 2023). As part of our pre-museum initiative, we hold programs every month where people encounter art and museums through experimentation and thought (target audience: upper elementary to middle school students and their parents).
  *2 Since 2021, it has been presented in the group exhibition as “The World of the Hand Thinking.” Our museum houses five works: “Space-Time Pyramid,” “Kodai,” “Shima,” “Tride,” and “Quietness.”
  *3 Four types of Western paper (e.g., Mermaid paper, cardboard) and four types of Japanese paper (e.g., Sugihara paper, Kojiro paper).
  *4 Appreciation through dialogue.
  *5 The details of the collaborative program with Okayama Prefectural Okayama School for the Blind are introduced in “A Museum Kind to People: New Developments in Universal Museums” (edited by Kojiro Hirose, Seikyusha Co., Ltd.).

Edited and Published by the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities.

Published on July 25th, 2023.