In 2008, the Singaporean Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts launched a pilot project to make its museums accessible to the visually handicapped. In light of this initiative, gsmprjct° was called upon to create information panels and structures that would enable visually handicapped visitors to appreciate the National Museum of Singapore’s Food Gallery and Fashion Gallery.
These two galleries, designed by gsmprjct° in 2006, are multi-sensory experiences, calling upon visitors’ sense of hearing, smell and touch. To call attention to these experiences, braille information panels were installed at the galleries’ audio stations, as well the Food Gallery’s smelling stations, which allow visitors to catch a whiff of typical foods in Singaporean cooking, and the Fashion Gallery’s tactile stations, where visitors can feel the texture of fashionable fabrics. The tactile materials, as well as the angle and placement of these panels, make them accessible and ergonomic, without detracting from other visitors’ visual experience.
Taking the experiment to the next level, gsmprjct° wanted to give these new visitors a sense of the exhibition space and its main elements. With this goal in mind, two tactile diagrams depicting each gallery’s configuration were developed. In the Food Gallery, this diagram indicates the placement and shape of the room’s different food stations. A Braille information panel enables blind visitors to identify the typical Singaporean meals discussed at each station, as well as the cooking sounds represented in the gallery’s sound track. In the Fashion Gallery, the diagram represents the shape of the clothes presented in the gallery’s showcases and audio-visual presentations, transforming this exhibition’s visuals into a tactile experience.