Main content

The Touch Test

The Touch Test. Claudia Hammond launches a major new study investigating the role of touch. She invites the audience to take part by completing an online questionnaire.

The Touch Test. When did someone last touch you? Maybe they kissed you goodbye this morning or someone touched you on the arm on the bus because you鈥檇 dropped something. The Touch Test explores touch in its many forms and launches a major piece of research in which we want as many people as possible to take part.

Commissioned by Wellcome Collection to conduct The Touch Test in collaboration with 91热爆 Radio 4 is Michael Banissy Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths University of London. Also in the studio are Deborah Bowman, Professor of Medical Ethics at St Georges University, and Laura Bates from the Everyday Sexism campaign. Exploring the future of touch is Hannah Limerick from Ultraleap, demonstrating how touch sensations will be used in the near future.

Professor Roger Kneebone and lace maker Fleur Oakes explain how medical students can learn to touch, and Claudia visits Dr Sarah Wilkes at the Institute of Making and encounters some extraordinary tactile materials including the lightest material ever made. We hear a preliminary taster from the drama company 20 Stories High from their show Touchy, and paper engineer Helen Friel creates an artwork in the studio with a revealing message.

Available now

42 minutes

Last on

Tue 21 Jan 2020 21:30

Broadcasting House paper sculpture

Broadcasting House paper sculpture
Helen Friel鈥檚 paper sculpture before it got torn apart!

Broadcasts

  • Tue 21 Jan 2020 09:00
  • Tue 21 Jan 2020 21:30

Anatomy of Touch

Anatomy of Touch

How important is touch to us? Claudia Hammond reveals the 91热爆 Touch Test results.