ESPES Journal (Society for Aesthetics in Slovakia)
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To Touch or Not to Touch: Taxidermy and the Museum
Get PDFRecently I attended a class in which a conservation specialist instructed the students to practice caution when treating an old piece of taxidermy. She directed them to wear masks and don protective gloves. Treating the taxidermy with naked hands was strictly forbidden. Upon hearing the instructor’s cautionary words, I wondered why taxidermy, once considered beautiful and desirable, had now become a toxic site. What had occasioned the change? And what does this alteration have to say about the nature of our contemporary relationship to our surroundings. And what does it have to say about the nature of touch? This essay is divided into four parts. The first considers former opportunities to reach out and actually touch taxidermy. This section discusses the nature of touch, particularly its affirmation of reality. The second section attends to the necessity of protecting taxidermy from insect infestations, a concern that until the 1980s, involved using large doses of arsenic and mercuric chloride. The third section discusses how the application of these toxics has recently alarmed museum directors. No longer is one allowed to touch the displayed taxidermy. Part Four addresses this alteration. The shift from welcoming touch to banning it participates in a society in which touch is often feared or deemed unnecessary. Touching the genuine article has been replaced by virtual realities or mediated so that a skin to skin encounter is now not as available. This alteration has compromised the experience of touch and our relationship to the world
The Aesthetics of Stones
Get PDFIn this paper, I shall examine the aesthetic experience afforded by stones – in particular the kind of smoothly rounded enchanting pebbles that invite us to handle and collect them – and argue that it is not simply an experience of natural objects, but that their appeal is related to their being comparable to artefacts, although the workmanship was enacted not by a human but by superhuman forces. Such stones have, as it were, an ontological position between natural aesthetic phenomena and artefacts and summons us to connect with our earthly origins. Finding a stone that is not only pleasing to the eye but more importantly to the hand can bring one into contact with the planet’s deep past. I explore the affinities between stones and Korsmeyer’s (2019) “Real Things” – rare, old or singular artefacts, characterised by genuineness and a distinct aura, that invite us to come closer to and touch them.