Angie Kim: Midterm Portfolio – #3 Captions of Tactile Graphics

Project Description:

This video is a tutorial that shows how to make a tactile flower with hands with visual and verbal instruction.

From my swell form tactile flowers I found that it is a very easy-to-use tool but not very accessible as the machine itself is so expensive (and the paper too!) and not everybody has a skill to use design software and printers.

To make the tactile graphic easier I came up with an idea to use our own body to generate or feel a graphic.

Documentation:

Transcript:

How to make a tactile flower with your hand!

Step one, bring your hand and face your palm in front of you.

I used my right hand just because I’m right handed but you can use any side.

Step two, bring your five fingers all together.

Imagine there’s a very tiny dot in front of you and you’re trying to point the dot with all your fingers.

something like you’re trying to make every fingers are touching other two fingers next to it, your baby finger touching your thumb, thumb is touching your index finger, index finger is touching your middle finger and so on. There would be a small gap between fingers.

Than now, hold your breath. We just shaped the 5 petals. But where?

Each fingertip is a petal. let’s start with the middle finger. With the other hand, feel a small circle that starts from the top of the nail, to the bottom of your fingertip and back to the top of the nail.

That’s the first petal and we have 5 total. The rests are on your ring finger, baby finger, thumb, and your index finger.

Now let’s find stigma. Do you remember the small gap between five fingers? The shape and position of the gap is a stigma. Imagine you’re placing that shape on top of the petals.

And yes, we got the flower! Maybe you can bring it to your valentine.

But always save one for you!

Reflection questions: 

Which elements of the work are beautifully/wonderfully/perfectly expressed through the modality?

• The concept itself opens up a world of imagination to a wider audience, encouraging them to think of their body as a medium.
• Planning the captions before, during, and after shooting, and aligning sound and visual effects, proved to be more effective and clear than adding them after the video was complete.
• The step-by-step verbal instructions, when paired with the visual demonstration, made the process easier to understand and follow for the users.

 

Which elements are lost or inexpressible through the modality of the week?

• A certain degree of personal touch was lost as I used a generic, AI-generated voice. I would like to contrast this with a version that uses my voice in the future.
• Some verbal instruction is not so clear when you’re not looking at the visual.
• The final ‘visual’ is still visual, and the tactile aspect of the visual is not explained enough in the tutorial. I might need to add sentences such as ‘the feeling of your fingertips might be similar to soft petals of flowers’.

 

What accessibility features are built into the work and how are they expressed?

• The video tutorial offers both visual and verbal instructions, which makes the tutorial more universally accessible. Viewers who are more visually oriented can follow the visual prompts, while those who prefer auditory learning can follow along with the verbal explanations.
• The clear step-by-step instructions make the process easy to follow. Each step is broken down into simple, digestible parts that the viewers can follow at their own pace. This is particularly beneficial for those who might struggle with complex instructions or have learning difficulties.
• The repetition of important points throughout the tutorial ensures that crucial information is emphasized, allowing viewers to better understand and remember the steps. This feature increases the accessibility of the tutorial, especially for those who may need a bit more reinforcement to fully grasp the process.
• The use of hand gestures to demonstrate the process also aids in understanding, particularly for those who might find verbal instructions challenging to follow. This multimodal approach caters to a variety of learning styles, thus enhancing the accessibility of the content.
• Lastly, the idea of using one’s own body as a medium for creating tactile graphics is an approach that not only makes the process more interactive and engaging but also more accessible, as it does not require any specialized equipment or software.

 

Who does this project exclude? Who would not be able to interact with this work ? Who is this modality not accessible for?

• People who have difficulties with fine motor / some gross motor skills would be hard to interact with this video

 

For the remixes: what is lost and what is gained in this remix? What did you have to leave behind and what could you take with you?

• I tried to make a Social Media style tutorial and found the short length of a video can make it hard to follow the steps.
• But the video editing tools that Social Media is using (CapCut in particular) are actually focusing a lot in transcripts and captions. I guess it’s because nowadays people endlessly scroll the short form contents and sometimes they don’t listen to the sound but just only watch the visual – or vise versa.
• I was thinking deeper to generate clear verbal instruction to describe the process. I need more feedback to develop it better!
• And I learned people would like to have more of ‘human’ touch in production based on the feedback form that I received after showcasing it in class.