[Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] audio tours gallery - Big Impression

[Lisa Yayla]

Excerpt from article Big Impressions link 
http://www.syracusenewtimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3624&Itemid=147
 From Syracus New York

Also exciting are new audio tours that have been created to enhance the 
visitor’s walk through the three galleries. By dialing into the system 
with their cell phones, visitors can listen to Mike Tooby, director of 
Learning, Programs and Development at the National Museum of Wales, talk 
about the paintings; hear haiku written and read by Syracuse City School 
District children, “which offers another glimpse of what a painting can 
mean to an individual,” Kern notes; or a program Kern says is unique to 
the Everson, one using tonalities.

“This message is slightly longer than the others,” Kern says. “It begins 
with a narrative that gives a formal description of the painting, talks 
about how the artist deals with things like contrast, geometry and 
structure, and then says that if this painting were music, this is what 
it would sound like.” Then it plays an original composition, created by 
Barre Hunt O’Neill and Setnor Musicians, and recorded by Ronald Keck at 
Sub Cat Recording Studio, in Skaneateles.

For the tonalities interpretation, museum staff worked with Aurora of 
Central New York, which serves clients who are blind, visually impaired, 
deaf or hearing impaired. “You can’t get a more under-served 
constituency than those that are visually impaired in an art museum,” 
Kern notes. “These tonalities are profoundly moving and truly 
inspirational. The description of each work is so absolutely articulate. 
Visual arts and music, especially when you’re talking about 
impressionism. The impressionists themselves truly believed in this 
connection, with Renoir going so far as to say ‘I want my reds to sound 
as clearly as a trumpet.’ The whole idea of color music is a very 
important component of 20th-century art.”