The experience of engaging with art and history has been utterly transformed by information and communications technology in recent decades. We now have virtual, mediated access to countless heritage collections and assemblages of artworks, which we intuitively browse and navigate in a way that wasn't possible until very recently. This collection of essays takes up the question of the cultural meaning of the information and communications technology that makes these new engagements possible, asking questions like: How should we theorise the sensory experience of art and heritage? What does information technology mean for the authority and ownership of heritage?

Dr. Chiel van den Akker is lecturer Historical Theory at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is the author of Elementaire Deeltjes - Geschiedenis (Athenaeum 2019) and The Exemplifying Past. A Philosophy of History (Amsterdam University Press 2018).Dr. Susan Lêgene is Professor of Political History at the Department of History at the VU University Amsterdam. Her research focuses on processes of inclusion and exclusion in colonial and postcolonial nation state formation.

Introduction Chiel van den Akker and Susan Legêne Touched from a Distance. The Practice of Affective Browsing Martijn Stevens Visual Touch. Ekphrasis and Interactive Art Installations Cecilia Lindhé Breathing Art. Art as an Encompassing and Participatory Experience Christina Grammatikopoulou Curiosity and the Fate of Chronicles and Narratives Chiel van den Akker Networked Knowledge and Epistemic Authority in the Development of Virtual Museums Anne Beaulieu and Sarah de Rijcke Between History and Commemoration: The Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands Serge ter Braake From the Smithsonian's MacFarlane Collection to 'Inuvialuit Living History' Kate Hennessy Conclusion Chiel van den Akker