Artworks such as paintings or sculptures are accessible mainly through vision. Whilst blind
and partially blind (BPB) people are traditionally considered as the primary users of audio
description to access to art works, several groups also benefit from other alternative solutions,
involving other senses, in order to experience art and enjoy a (multimodal) aesthetic experience
induced by an artwork.
These include young children, particularly those acquiring language, elderly people who are
losing visual acuity, people with limited attention spans or other cognitive disabilities, people
who are temporarily disabled through illness or injury, migrants and tourists for whom a local
language is not well known, economically and socially disadvantaged groups who are
unfamiliar with or alienated by traditional ways of experiencing and engaging with art, and
people who do not process information in a primarily visual way.
In general, any public will benefit from multimodal initiatives such as audio-tactile
accessibility to the “visual arts”; this includes blind, low vision and non-blind visitors. This
requires a necessary move beyond ocular-centric assumptions about artwork perception
towards a truly inclusive enriched experience for all. Trials of tactile presentations of artworks
exist in research laboratories and are evaluated in some museums.
Issues such as new multi-modal stimulation devices, models of perception emerging from
stimulations, the simplified presentation of objects whilst still achieving the “conservation of
meaning”, multimodal data fusion, etc. are frequently investigated around the world.
However, museums are not only interested in multimodal presentations of artworks, but also
in the physical accessibility of exhibition halls and self-guidance through collections. Specific
wearable technologies and specific adaptable guides for indoor/outdoor navigation is necessary.
Therefore, the objective of this session is to provide a state-of-the-art of ICT (Information
and Communication Technologies) based solutions for accessible artworks, museum space and
possible progress beyond.
Contributions are invited on the following topics, including but not limited to:
- State-of-the art in ICT technologies for artwork representations
- Multimodal representations of artworks and associated electronic formats
- Methods for multimodal segmentation of images of paintings/frescos/tapestries, etc.
- Stimulation techniques and supportive technologies for multimodal perception
generation - Experimental validation of the multimodal representations from stimulations to an
abstract concept of perception emergence - Rehabilitation of the perception emergence
- Mobile assistance for autonomous indoor/outdoor navigation
- Models of interactions for human-machine wearable platform
- Technologies for mobility assistance of visually impaired visitors in museums
- Approaches to experience art without sight.
- Authors submitting to the STS have to follow the general submission, publishing and
registration procedure of the conference. - STS contributions will pass the standard peer reviewing process of the conference.
- Contributions to the STS have to be submitted using the ICCHP standard submission
procedures.
Chairs
Katerine Romeo, LITIS, University of Rouen Normandy
Christèle Lecomte, LITIS, University of Rouen Normandy