ABSTRACT
The most direct haptic engagements involve touching the artefacts themselves. Many museums of natural history, for example, have objects in which visitors, particularly children, are encouraged to feel. The modern museum is all too frequently a site of reverence and silence, filled with people acting and feeling as if they were visiting their dead or moribund relatives. The exhibition, which was called Sounds from the Vaults, displayed some of the Field Museum's collection of ancient instruments from different cultures. Museums will then be able to let people touch, as well as look at, their collections across the Internet. Museums have taken on a dual role: they perform conservation and they enable access. While museums are trusted depositories of important artefacts, which they are charged with preserving in perpetuity, museums are also responsible for providing access to these same artefacts.
