Fine Art Sound for the Blind

Tactile Images brings art to the blind by creating three dimensional tactile fine art for museums.  Activated by touch, embedded sensors in the artwork trigger a custom audio track.  The visually impaired experience the art through touch and sound. 

For the painting, George Washington Crossing the Delaware, twenty-seven touch sensors were embedded into the painting.  I created twenty-seven individual yet thematically connected audio drama mixes.  Through a script and sound effects, a narrative voice tells the story of the crossing, specific to each area of the painting that is touched. 

I recreated the sounds of the crossing by drawing on my field recordings of various streams, rivers, wind and boats.   The sound of boats creaking at a dock worked well for the sounds of the wooden boat in the crossing.

I continue to produce sound for the company’s tactile fine art installations. 
Installations include:

George Washington Crossing the Delaware
Traveling exhibition

The Marines and Tet: The Battle That Changed the Vietnam War
Traveling exhibition

Red Landscape by Georgia O’Keefe
Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, Texas

Three Folk Musicians by Romaire Bearden
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

The Last Spike by Thomas Hill
California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento

John William "Blind" Boone
Missouri School for the Blind

Les Marguerites Fleuriront Ce Soir (The Daisies Will Bloom Tonight) by Jeffrey Bass
On the WWII French, British and American spy Virginia Hall.
CIA Art Collection, Washington

To learn more, visit:  https://www.tactileimages.com/