Composing with Paintings

Background

The gallery has visitors from all walks of life - tourists, researchers, students, art majors, artists, designers and literally anyone; but not all of them are equipped with knowledge in art history. Some may have visited the gallery but came out equally clueless as before they entered. Due to their lack of art history, not all visitors appreciate the multitude of collections held by the National Gallery of Scotland.Considering making visitors fully engage with the gallery, we decided to go for an interactive installation.

The context of enquiry is “Would you find it interesting if you can experience music with another sensory organ? Would this change the way you see paintings?” In light of this, we would like to consider how we can make the gallery more meaningful to those with the disability in vision and those without prior knowledge of art history; would our project be able to bring another meaning to the paintings they see?

Methods

Arduino - Processing

Field Test

Ideal Prototype

Reflection

Starting from observing the visitors in the gallery, we came up with the idea to make an installation. By choosing the right components and putting them together, I did several prototypes and tried many different sensors. Also, I applied my java knowledge to finish the code for Arduino. This project enabled me to solve the problems in both the technical part and the concept part.