[TAGS] exploring the 3-D photographs exhibit at the Newseum

[Cheryl Fogle-Hatch]

Hello everyone,

If you are in the D.C. area between now and the beginning of July, I
highly recommend viewing this exhibit.  Some of you may have already
checked it out during Washington Seminar in January.  I took a small
group there this weekend and I am sharing my thoughts.

Exploring the 3-D photographs of the Marines at Tet, an exhibit at the Newseum

We enjoyed the freedom of coming to an inclusive, and accessible,
museum exhibit on our own schedule.
The 3-D photos are placed horizontally on panels about 3 feet off of
the ground and they have slightly smaller width and length dimensions.
Each panel has buttons in front with print and braille labels included
for the photo title.  In a standardized layout, the leftmost button
when pressed played a description of the photo (who, what, where) to
the right buttons gave access to audio clips of interviews with the
marines who were identified in the photos.

The photos contained embedded sensors (small dots about the size of
the fingertip.  These sensors labeled part of the image (e.g. gun, or,
marine name) when the sensor was on a person. Touching the sensor
played the clip of the interview.  The clip would play or could be
stopped when another sensor was access or another button was pushed.
Moving around the same sensor triggered it to repeat sometimes causing
a stuttering sound through the speaker.  The single speaker was
triggered when two people touched the photo in different places.  The
most recent sensor-tuch event always interrupted the previous audio
clip that was being played.

Since two people were exploring the panels together, we developed the
following strategy to minimize cutting between labelled audio clips:
1. press the button for the description
2. press each of the remaining buttons from left to right in order to
play all audio clips associated with the photo.
3. Then we took turns exploring the photo and triggered each of the
sensors as they were encountered.

perspective
foreground and background description was helpful to understand the photos.
Objects in the foreground appeared larger than those in the background.
Since the photos were chronological, it was easier to identify
repeated elements such as the ruined building where the marines were
located even as its perspective changed from background to foreground.

tactile differentiation
irregular shapes in the photos were easiest to identify by touch
(example: amunition worn on the belt was more distinct than the m16
rifle, but once labelled, the shape of the gun was identifiable). The
shapes of hands and heads were also readily identifiable.  square
shapes such as the canteens and backpacks were harder to identify.
textured rough for ground was helpful.

We also noticed that sighted visitors were playing the audio interview
clips, and some triggered the sensors in the 3-D photos.


-- 
Cheryl Fogle-Hatch, Ph.D.
Archaeologist and Museum Professional
(443) 939-8217
c.k.fogle at gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/cheryl-fogle-hatch/8/224/538
https://cherylfogle.academia.edu/