Exhibit manifesto
The "In Vivo: Human Diversity" bioart exhibition is the first exhibition of artworks in combination with biological elements, held in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, which is organized by the student club of Nazarbayev University - iGEM. As part of our educational work aimed at popularizing science in Kazakhstan, as well as increasing the availability of inclusive educational materials, we have organized this event. Here we decided to sent works aimed at highlighting the uniqueness and diversity of human individuality through the prism of science, and in particular, biology. One of the main goals of this project is to raise awareness of the current problems in education. Our event will bring together people interested in inclusion in education and science, as well as people who want to help schoolchildren with visual impairments, to also raise funds for charitable purposes. The collected funds will be used to develop the Remisee social project, created by the iGEM NU Kazakhstan team, to further improve the quality of education among schoolchildren with total blindness and residual vision.
Work gallery
Curatoral Text
Inclusivity
Bioart Exhibition accessible for visually impaired people
Description of the project
More than 700 thousand people with various disabilities and impairments are living in Kazakhstan, as of 2022 [3]. Several projects on developing opportunities for people with special needs are being implemented each year by governmental organizations and social foundations. However, not enough attention is drawn to making cultural facilities accessible to everyone. Only several museums in Kazakhstan are fully adapted for people with visual impairments. [5]
During this year, our team members gained vast experience in working with blind and visually impaired children, and we even created a variety of educational materials for them. Nevertheless, once our team came up with the idea of holding the Bioart Exhibition, we decided to deepen our knowledge about the adaptation of cultural objects for people with visual disabilities. We believe that every individual should have equal rights to explore any arts and cultural disciplines. In this regard, we chose to take on the responsibility of conducting the first Central Asian Bioart exhibition that will be accessible to visitors with visual limitations.
Accessible environment
People with visual disabilities should be also provided with opportunities for interaction, development of their abilities, and full contact with art. Our team together with Kazakhstani inclusion specialists have done tremendous work and made great efforts to create an accessible environment for blind and visually impaired visitors. The general model of an accessible exhibition environment - live or recorded verbal description supplemented with a touch tour.
Verbal description
Verbal description or audiodescr?ption is a form of narration that creates a mental image of an object, exssive and spectacular art or events and videos. It translates visual information into language. So, forming a mental picture of something helps visually impaired ones to better understand the context, participate in discussions, and create their own opinions. We used two forms of verbal descriptions - live and recorded, when the volunteer turns on the verbal description via QR code. Live verbal description was used during touch tours.
Tactile exhibits
For many visually disabled people, touch is the primary way to obtain information or access a work of art. Tactile models allow them to build a complete mental image of an object.
Braille signage
Braille signages were used to give brief descriptions of the artworks. It contains information about the author, year, title, materials used, and very brief description of appearance and a general idea of the work
Touch tour
Touch tour incorporates live verbal descriptions and in-depth tactile investigation of selected works. The trained guide describes the space they are in to help orient people and reads the pared script of verbal description nad instructions of handling tactile exhibits (some works can be fragile). Important aspect of having a touch tour is that it has an appropriate track which is convenient for visually impaired visitors and the guide can always encourage dialogue and responses while visitors explore a work. During the exhibition, we conducted two touch tours: one for adult audience and one for schoolchildren.
Organization process
An inclusive environment for blind and visually impaired visitors had been organized in 3 stages:
1. Discovering general attributes of accessible exhibitions
Environment, product, or service must have a set of characteristics in order to be comfortably, safely, and equally useful to all and, especially, to those who have some sort of disability. To discover this set of characteristics and ways of organizing an inclusive environment for blind and visually impaired visitors, we contacted the charitable foundation “Dara”. “Dara” Foundation is actively involved in creating and developing inclusive museums along with supporting an inclusive educational environment. Experts of this foundation, including visually impaired expert Kasiyet Omarova, shared with us their amazing and valuable experience of adapting Kazakhstan’s museums.
Results:
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We obtained detailed instructions on the general approaches used in creating accessible exhibitions for ones with vision loss
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We identified approaches that are applicable to BioArt exhibition, in particular, audio descriptions for artworks, tactile 2D artworks, 3D models, touch tours and Braille signage for each exhibit
2. Obtaining competencies and exploring resources to implement selected methods
After defining how the Bioart exhibition can be accessible for blind people, we searched for opportunities that will let us implement all of the above methods.
“Dara Foundation” connected us with resentatives of the Gala Global Group which is the only agency in Kazakhstan that performs audio-visual translations and writes verbal descriptions. Gala Global Group in cooperation with Kazakh Translation Academy conducted a week-long training on writing scripts for verbal description and creating touch tours.
Results:
- our team members received qualification certificates and were capable of adequately paring verbal descriptions for our exhibits and conduct touch tours;
- we get an idea of the implementation of recorded audio descriptions via QR codes.
Increasing the number of tactile exhibits had the utmost importance in creating an accessible environment. One of our team members who works in the Robotics department of Nazarbayev University used 3D printers to build tactile 3D models of different cell types and real-sized human organs. Schoolchildren with loss of vision from school-gymnasium No.10 in Astana were engaged in paring tactile artworks as well. Some artists exhibited sculptural works and tactile installations. In this way, visually impaired visitors had an opportunity to touch original works of art.
People with visual limitations should also have a choice to briefly learn about the exhibit without the need for listening to long verbal descriptions. Therefore, we needed signage for every exhibit in Braille language. Nazarbayev University’s expert on assistive technologies and accessibility of information, Ziyat Abdykaimov helped us to create and print Braille signages. The printed Braille descriptions were reviewed and corrected by him. Considering his suggestions, some of the artwork descriptions were edited and reprinted several times. Moreover, he shared guidelines on the proper placement of Braille descriptions near each artwork. We tried to print tactile 2D copies of snapshots using PIAF tactile image printer. According to Mr. Abdykaimov’s review, it wasn’t tactile enough, he suggested editing the snapshots’ color and using more simple lines for future exhibition.
3. Implementing selected methods and making final adjustments
At the last stage of the project, when we have collected all exhibits and pared verbal descriptions and signages, Kasiyet (“Dara Foundation”) and Anna (“GalaGlobalGroup”) instructed us on the proper allocation of tactile exhibits, Braille signages, QR codes with audio descriptions and planning touch tour track.
Feedback and future improvements
The following feedback was recorded after the touch tour for visually impaired children of school-gymnasium No.10. Feedbacks were transcribed and translated from Russian into English.
Aigul Kenesova, teacher of specialized class of school-gymnasium No.10:
“We were invited by students of Nazarbayev University to their exhibition. we really liked the exhibition. first of all, everything is tactile, children not only listened, but also touched it all with their hands, “looked” with their hands, what a heart looks like, what size it is and etc. if last time we came to make animal cells with our own hands, today we saw them at the exhibition, Children were able to “look” at their work this time. Moreover, children were able to touch freshly growing wheat, and grass, which was very soft to the touch. We are very grateful to the students of the Nazar University for their imagination, for their desire to show our children something new, because no matter how limited our children are in the fact that they cannot look with their eyes, now you can see it all at such exhibitions with your hands and we are very thankful for it. More such kind of exhibitions should be organized for our children. we are always happy to take part in and visit this kind of events!”
Viktoria Tsoy, 6th grade student of school-gymnasium No.10:
“I really liked human head sculptures. In the future, I want to be an artist and make sculptures as I saw here. I want to make sculpture of an elephant. Also I liked cells’ models, it will be great to use things like that at school. I’m more interested in arts and science is hard for me but using this kind of models will make everything easier to remember. And also I practiced my skills of reading Braille language”
Improvements for the future exhibition:
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Create tactile 2D copies of microscopic snapshots
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Verbal description suitable for both adult and child audience
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Verbal description should consider when the loss of vision occurred
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Engage and instruct more volunteers
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Adjust pedestals’ height
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Improve the quality of recorded audio guide
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Plan several tracks for touch tours
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Increase % of verbal descriptions
Guidebook on making temporary exhibition accessible for visually impaired ones
We believe that everyone should be equally involved in social and cultural life. It’s important to implement as many socially inclusive projects as possible that will change the attitude towards people with disabilities and not consider them more as vulnerable segments of the population, but treat them as active and worthy members of society. In this regard, we collected all our knowledge about organizing accessible exhibition environments into this Guidebook. We hope that it will be helpful for those who are planning to hold such kind of temporary exhibitions.
[Guidebook on creating accessable exhibition environment for visually impaired people]
More information about Bioart exhibition is in Science Communication section