Access to visual art for blind people seems like a paradox: How can you see a painting if you don't see it?
Art museums are traditionally oculocentric, meaning they are based solely on sight, which poses major physical, intellectual, and sensory barriers for people with visual disabilities. It is well known that museum regulations prohibit touching original exhibits, which we agree with, but which deprives blind people of what is seemingly the only way to directly interact with visual art.
Common accessibility solutions, such as audio guides, are insufficient because they only provide verbal descriptions of what is seen. They do not allow blind people to independently create precise and detailed mental images of the works, they cannot make comparisons, connections, the information remains abstract and dissociated from sensory perception.
The TactileLibrary® Research Center within West University of Timisoara (UVT), in partnership with the National Museum of Art, but also thanks to the sponsorship of Continental Tires Romania, is in a partnership through which it seeks to overcome this shortcoming, through an innovative approach, based on the principle that touch is essential for the understanding of art by visually impaired visitors. The project transforms 10 famous works from the permanent exhibition of the MNArT into relief models (tactile replicas), which the blind can freely explore. Thus, the experience is no longer passive (listening to a description), but becomes active, haptic and cognitive.
It is a kind of hybrid system, where touch is digitally augmented. Each tactile board contains a QR code that, when scanned, provides access to audio-accessible explanatory content. There is stored information about how to read and decode each board tactilely, and about the artwork itself (period, technique, artistic movement it belongs to, author and his life story, composition, meaning, critics' opinions and even short relevant quotes about the painter's artistic credo).
This project offers a technical solution for a full cultural experience, transforming art from an exclusive subject into an inclusive tangible reality. This is the standard that MNArT and TactileLibrary® set for the concept of museum inclusion.
UVT students from various specializations are involved in the project: Corina Ciunae and Mădălin Grădinaru (Communication and Public Relations), Daniel Matei (Cognitive Sciences, 3rd year), Iulian Rotaru (English Computer Science, 3rd year), Ioana Satmari (Digital Media, 3rd year), Briana Toader (Digital Media, 3rd year), all members of the TactileLibrary® team, coordinated by Dr. Alina Satmari (Department of Geography).
The opening is scheduled for December 3, at 17 p.m., at the National Museum of Art in Timisoara, on which occasion a piano recital will also take place, given by Theodor Rădulescu, a master's student at the Faculty of Music at UVT, a blind artist. Admission is free.
For those who wish to visit the tactile exhibition blind, the organizers have also prepared a series of guided tours led by blind students. They are ready to offer an experience that will help us better understand that, sighted or blind, we are more alike than different. Registration for these special guided tours is free and will be done on the page www.tactilelibrary.net and Instagram account tactile_library, within the limit of available places, starting from December 3, the day of the opening.
This collaboration between a university, a cultural institution, and a private company represents a partnership model that supports innovation and social inclusion, a sign that the world we want can be built together through engagement.
Project supported by Continental Tires Romania through the West University Foundation of Timișoara.
INFO: Dr. Alina Satmari, TactileLibrary® Research Center Coordinator, alina.satmari@e-uvt.ro
