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The sense of touch is crucial for most artists. But what happens if you don't have hands? Or if you鈥檝e lost the sense of touch altogether? In this episode of Start Making Sense, Professor Tom Shakespeare explores the importance of touch and pain through the work of disabled artists.

Lincolnshire-based artist Jason Wilsher-Mills lost almost all sensation in his body when he became paralysed as a child. Now, he invites audiences to touch and interact with his psychedelic sculptures - transforming a traumatic childhood experience into something joyful and celebratory.

At the Tate Modern in London, Tom discovers how touch can also be a form of care when it comes to preserving art works. Conservator Charity Fox explains why the desire to touch Frida Kahlo鈥檚 clothes and possessions is about more than curiosity.

We learn about the importance of touch as an emotional sense with Dr Laura Crucianell from the Department of Psychology at Queen Mary University of London and hear about the brain鈥檚 ability to adapt to limb difference with Dr Tamar Makin who heads the Brain plasticity lab at the University of Cambridge.

International President of the Mouth and Foot Painting Association, Tom Yendell, shows us how he paints with his feet at his studio in Hampshire and we learn how his brain has adapted in an example of extraordinary neuroplasticity.

Tom Shakespeare is a sociologist and ethicist who collaboratively researches with disabled people, and thinks a lot about the role of disability in culture, including the arts.

He is Professor of Disability Research at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Over three episodes in Start Making Sense, Tom explores the role of the senses through the work of disabled artists, past and present. He will cover sight, touch and pain, and hearing.

Presenter: Tom Shakespeare
Producer: Emily Uchida Finch
Exec Producer: Mark Rickards
Sound Design: Brian Mc Namara
A Whistledown Production for 麻豆社 Radio 4