Gray Gallery: Visual Description

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Visual Descriptions project is a collaboration with the Grey Art Gallery,  NYU’s fine art museum, in the efforts to make the online collection more accessible for low vision or blind visitors. Our team is working with the NYU community and Gallery staff to create visual descriptions for 10 different artworks consisting of sculpture, painting, and photography. Because there are a variety of approaches to creating text-based visual descriptions of artwork- some encourage creativity while others are strict about objectivity- the goal of this project is to better understand what makes an effective visual description, and which guidelines are best suited for the Grey Art Gallery. 

team name

We established that our values and mission as a group were to bring to the light and awareness to the necessity of assistive technology in museums and galleries to the general public. We were searching for a symbolic or metaphorical representation of “the bringing to light” when Amy noted that Prometheus, the Titan god of fire in Greek mythology, signified “forethought.” Prometheus is said to have brought fire-stolen from the Gods- to humanity as a representation of technology, knowledge, and the arts and sciences. The mythology could be reimagined as a metaphor for the redistribution of the exclusive wealth of technology back into society- especially into the margins.

GROUP INFORMATION 

• Group Members:  Amy Loo*, J Sparer, Kristin Kweon
• Project Mentor(s): Leah Sweet (Head of Education and Programs), Laurie Duke (Head of Finance and Administration)
• Meeting times: Wednesdays @ 11:00AM

* main point of contact