Thesis beginnings

Thesis R&D is in full swing. After some research in museum accessibility over the summer at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in NYC, I've decided to focus my thesis investigations on the the museum experience for blind and low vision visitors.

There are still a lot of things I need to get my brain around...

Am I more interested in improving museum experiences, or improving an experience for a blind or low vision person?

Well, neither strictly.

I think what I'm most interested in (at least today) is in how people see things differently and how one sense can be translated to another.

People who are blind because they experience the world in a different way. Museums because they are where all this stuff is collected and where people have dedicated and focussed moments.

There are a few of tools out there, like Touch Graphic's Talking Tactile Exhibit Panels that narrate an object according to where you are touching it. Pretty awesome. But, the content is all tell and no show.

Since I am still in the testing the waters phase, I think I'll spend some time exploring unexpected ways that visuals can be expressed. What does a painting feel like? What does a painting sound like? How can we translate visual art in an way that creates rich experiences for experience all of the senses?