Responsables del Sistema de Garantía Interna de Calidad (SGIC) del Plan de Estudios

This thesis is formed of seven chapters. These are: the current chapter Introduction;

Literature Review; Methodology & Methods which are then followed by the chapters relevant to practice. These practice chapters are: Tactual Explorations Project and a chapter called Other Projects and Experiments. The final two chapters are the Critical Discussion & Analysis, and the Conclusion. For illustrative purposes these chapters are defined as sitting within four broader research components of Introduction &

Background, Research Approach, Practice, and Evaluation & Conclusion. The thesis

diagram below (Figure 1-2) illustrates the navigation of the thesis and the chapters in relation to these research components.

Figure 1-2: Thesis structure diagram showing the navigation and links to chapters within the research components

This current chapter, Introduction, has begun with elaborating what this research is about. This was followed with setting the research objectives and listing the research questions along with the main question of the study. The following section stated what original contributions this thesis offers to academia¹². The section that followed this originality declaration paid a particular attention to description of the audience of this research as well as the viewers of the thesis. The chapter is now being concluded with this structure which will summarise the other chapters:

After the above-mentioned practical look at what this thesis is about, the second chapter, Literature Review follows and builds on this introduction by reviewing the work influenced and inspired this research. The review locates the research within academia by examining the past/current knowledge within the sub topics. The style of the review is critical and contextual; therefore it contains the argumentation this research needs.

This chapter first talks about the concept of touch and importance of tactile interaction in general, then brings the discussion to museums and gives brief history of museology before reviewing the access issues for visually impaired visitors as well as the subject of touch in museums.

As a minor but still an important topic, the literature review also touches on the subject of learning at museum institutions however; it places this inside a more relevant topic which is the visitor interactions in museums. This is then followed with the topic that is the heart of this research, inclusive approach studied under universal design

principles. The chapter then moves on to a brief history of human-computer interaction and Haptics then concludes with the review of technologies as well as Augmented Reality (AR) used in museums.

Once the previous research is reviewed, the third chapter, Methodology & Methods, reflects the methodological considerations and strategies that this research employs.

After an introduction and an argument for the choice of methodologies, the chapter dedicates a section to creative research methodology. Here, how a multi-method approach is applied to every element of practice within the research is illustrated and multiple roles of the researcher are further explained. By confirming the

multidisciplinary and experimental approach, the study first pictures itself within a

12 The contributions to knowledge will be discussed a greater deal in the Conclusion chapter.

performative research paradigm and describes how it was developed by some epistemological and ontological influences such as action research.

Also in the methodology chapter, along with Schön’s notion of reflective practitioner as part of action research, curatorial and artistic methods that this study employs as part of the creative research methodology are defined; At this point, the links between action research and performative research are drawn, then writing as practice is proposed as one of the research methods that shaped this study. As well as data collection methods, the chapter also provides information on data analysis and evaluation methods.

Straight after the methodological approach, the practice elements of this research are introduced and explained further. The fourth chapter, Tactual Explorations, focuses on the main project of the research. This project was created first as a format proposed for a new type of exhibition, then as a fully realised public event which tested this format by providing a tactile exhibition along with public workshops, artist talks and

discussions/tours for specialist schools.

Within the fourth chapter the aims and developments of Tactual Explorations project are clarified, and project management stages are explained. The impact and

involvement of other artists besides myself who created work for this project is discussed, and our individual artworks as well as the workshops that were created for this project are discussed in relation to the artist brief which was prepared tactically for the project. This part of the thesis concludes with the direct results of the project and visitor feedback, before moving on to the next chapter illustrating the other practical elements of the research. On that fifth chapter entitled Other Projects & Experiments, each project is individually described and their outcomes are illustrated.

The first practice work inside this chapter is the User-feedback Exercise that took part in London with small group of randomly selected participants. The exercise was designed to gain a first-hand observation of people interacting through touch and to understand the basic role of touch in examining objects. The exercise was also designed to study the realisation of tactile information as an interface to a visual exhibit.

The next practice element introduced within this chapter is the Touching the Bronze Bust of Sophocles. Since the Bronze Bust of Sophocles is the selected object of this thesis, an in-depth analysis of the object and visitors’ interaction with this object was studied

further. This work is not only presented for the purposes of adding real insights to the surface information presented on the Bronze Bust of Sophocles and its replica, but also as a means to analyse and define my research behaviour.

As the third project within this chapter, another practice element of the research, a curatorial study called Haptic Vision & Tangible Images is introduced. This project is based on the notion of gathering tactual definition from untouchable visual

information, in this case a selection of photographs from a purposefully created online pool sharing the same title of the project. In order to study the texture properties that have the potential to be interpreted, the project uses the same questions raised or addressed by the Tactual Explorations. With the intention to test and/or validate results, the project invites other scholars to describe predetermined tactile properties against these questions. The images supplied within the text in this chapter are either screen-shots or photographs to illustrate certain parts of the individual projects and only represent a small selection. The main collection of images and relevant documents can be found in the appendices section. A DVD is also supplied with this thesis to show any video footage and photographs as an attachment.

Following the practice work, the sixth chapter, Critical Discussion & Analysis,

communicates the ideas and issues raised by this practice, and it also delivers further discussion on argumentation that was presented within the survey of literature which takes place in the Literature Review chapter. At this point the research also gets placed within a theoretical framework of questioning the thingness of an object as well as valuing the interface as a tangible information tool between people and an untouchable museum object through strategies and philosophies of other scholars.

After six chapters of illustrating the research process and its connection to academia, the seventh chapter, Conclusion, looks back at the finished research. This chapter gives an overview to the thesis by summarizing the results and evaluates these results by stating what objectives are achieved with this inquiry with special references to the discussion and practice work. The conclusion then wraps up the thesis by

contemplating future work and potential plans attached to the research.

A list showing re-definitions of some of the keywords and terms is placed in the Appendices section at the end of this thesis. It is not aimed to be a complete glossary;

however it can be used as an aid when reading this thesis.