Proposal Abstract

A picture may speak a thousand words, but how might images be translated as a tactile surface? Why might this be important? In the age of screen-based media and digital reproduction, we have abundant access to images, and yet so many images are accessed via screen or as digital prints. Both are presented as an absence of surface. Therefore, people with visual impairments who represent a significant percentage of the community are denied this opportunity to engage fully in society and may range from the enjoyment of an exhibition to navigating across a busy city. From an early age, we use our senses to find out how the things around us feel, taste and sound. When we lose our senses—either through age, illness or impairment from birth—then we lose a vital connection to a rich sensorial engagement with the world. The aim is to explore the possibility of an engaging surface and how print in its many forms might help people connect with images and artefacts and even apprehend large objects for an expanded comprehension. We explore how materials and surfaces feel to the touch and how these can be used for social, cultural engagement, factual information and way-finding. We are working mainly with the visually impaired and different ages to explore how different printed surfaces feel. We are developing materials and resources as memory aids and tactile pictures to understand, for example, the composition and pictorial narrative of a painting, the surface details of a museum artefact, or a scale version of a large building. The presentation will explore different examples of surface tactility and multi-sensory engagement.