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Unseen Art – classical art paintings in 3D for the blind

43 points by danboarder 11y ago

goldenkey 11y ago
Starry night is so easy to feel... I feel like it'd be better to give a height to each pixel in the painting based on its luminosity/color. A sculpture is not a painting. At least with this height method, the information conveyed (in terms of entropy) is the same, and if properly trained, I bet anyone could understand the painting through the bump-mapping.
baumgarn 11y ago
I dont know, would this have informative value for blind people? But certainly the object is not the artwork itself anymore, its just a transfer of structural information. It is also subject to a high level of interpretation of the recreating sculptor. Doesn't really make sense to me. There's an irony to them picking the Mona Lisa, a painting that is populary seen as an icon of art, but really only on a very primitive level. It is almost just a media invention of what art is - and there it stops. I'd argue nobody is really seeing the mona lisa anymore.
- panglott 11y ago
  The other option is written picture descriptions, which could easily go more than a thousand words trying to capture all of the information discussed in an art criticism class. Things like the composition of elements. It's more typical these days for students who are blind to be in a class with sighted students. You don't want to have to exclude them from the discussion if possible. Ultimately these are just fancy tactile graphics. Sure, it's different, but tactile graphics are well established in math and science education. And 3D printing has real potential here, since tactile graphics can be expensive to produce and distribute for this low-incidence population. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZREwnV_XRsA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZREwnV_XRsA
- danboarder 11y ago
  As a recognizable icon of art, as you say, I think the 3D print of the Mona Lisa was a great choice to represent this project.
fdej 11y ago
Nice project. I wonder, would https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Caricatures_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Caricatures_by_L... appear as funny to a blind person as they are to a seeing person?
frozenport 11y ago
Why does a blind person wear a wrist watch?
- vog 11y ago
  Typically, those watches have a button that they can press to generate a voice output that tells them the current time (and date). For example: http://www.braillebookstore.com/Talking-Watches http://www.braillebookstore.com/Talking-Watches
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- stevetrewick 11y ago
  So they can tell what time it is. Why else ?

43 points by danboarder 11y ago

Starry night is so easy to feel... I feel like it'd be better to give a height to each pixel in the painting based on its luminosity/color. A sculpture is not a painting. At least with this height method, the information conveyed (in terms of entropy) is the same, and if properly trained, I bet anyone could understand the painting through the bump-mapping.

baumgarn 11y ago

I dont know, would this have informative value for blind people? But certainly the object is not the artwork itself anymore, its just a transfer of structural information. It is also subject to a high level of interpretation of the recreating sculptor. Doesn't really make sense to me. There's an irony to them picking the Mona Lisa, a painting that is populary seen as an icon of art, but really only on a very primitive level. It is almost just a media invention of what art is - and there it stops. I'd argue nobody is really seeing the mona lisa anymore.

panglott 11y ago
The other option is written picture descriptions, which could easily go more than a thousand words trying to capture all of the information discussed in an art criticism class. Things like the composition of elements. It's more typical these days for students who are blind to be in a class with sighted students. You don't want to have to exclude them from the discussion if possible. Ultimately these are just fancy tactile graphics. Sure, it's different, but tactile graphics are well established in math and science education. And 3D printing has real potential here, since tactile graphics can be expensive to produce and distribute for this low-incidence population. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZREwnV_XRsA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZREwnV_XRsA
danboarder 11y ago
As a recognizable icon of art, as you say, I think the 3D print of the Mona Lisa was a great choice to represent this project.

fdej 11y ago

Nice project. I wonder, would https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Caricatures_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Caricatures_by_L... appear as funny to a blind person as they are to a seeing person?

frozenport 11y ago

Why does a blind person wear a wrist watch?

vog 11y ago
Typically, those watches have a button that they can press to generate a voice output that tells them the current time (and date). For example: http://www.braillebookstore.com/Talking-Watches http://www.braillebookstore.com/Talking-Watches
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
stevetrewick 11y ago
So they can tell what time it is. Why else ?