Start Date:
15th September 2012
End Date:
15th September 2012
Start Time:
11:00 am
End Time:
16:00
The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust and Royal National Institute of Blind People RNIB are working together on a new project funded by Arts Council England. The project aims to make art more accessible for blind and partially sighted visitors, as part of a legacy project from the London 2012 Games and starts with a special Audio Description Day on 15 September at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum’s CORE digital generative exhibition.
CORE is a giant installation at Enginuity, one of the ten Ironbridge Gorge Museums in Shropshire by Kurt Hentschläger. It is a digital generative exhibition that features humanoid bodies floating in a weightless environment, projected onto five giant screens running along a 33m former industrial Engine Shop. The exhibition, that is a part of the London 2012 Festival, also features music and as each body moves, a unique musical note can be heard, meaning that the more animated the bodies become, the louder the ‘music’ becomes.
Zoe Partington-Sollinger, Arts Development Officer for RNIB, explains. “We will be using Audio Describers to explain to blind and partially sighted visitors what is happening on the screens and then leave them to enjoy the exhibition on their own. On a recent visit with a blind colleague he said it was the most powerful piece of art he had ever seen. We are piloting audio description on 15th September to learn how we can adapt established techniques of audio description to digital art in order to roll out the ideas to other museums and arts venues.”
The project is part of a larger plan to train up dozens of volunteer Audio Describer across theWest Midlands, who can then use their skills to describe any arts event to blind and partially sighted visitors. The training will take place later in the year using the Ironbridge Gorge Museums 10 museums as a training base.
Contact:
Zoe Partington
National Arts Development Officer, Cultural Inclusion Services RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People)
58-72 John Bright Street
Birmingham
B1 1BN
T: 01299 272767
M: 07803 607008
E: zoe.partington-sollinger@rnib.org.uk
Website: www.rnib.org.uk