Digital DIY makes art more accessible to disabled people
Congratulations to Monza Makers for a great demonstration of some very important points of our research on DiDIY in both Creative Society and Education.
In a nutshell, these makers:
- have created a 3D printed version of Caravaggio's painting "Flagellation of Christ"
- explain very well why and how the painting style of Caravaggio seems made to order to create tridimensional versions of each painting, and be accessible to blind people: "Caravaggio plays with light and shadows in such a ways that bodies seem to jump out of the painting. But thanks to 3D printing, they really do that"
The result is the Caravaggio exhibit in this picture, and the reasons why we care just below it:
From our point of view, this work shows very well the following points, to be included in our final guidelines for educators and policy makers:
- DiDIY (Digital DIY) doesn't just give more people the opportunities to be artists (e.g. by giving the possibility to create scupltures even to who, for whatever reason, may never sculpt physically, with her own hands). It also gives more people, be they blind or unable to travel) more opportunities to enjoy more art
- With DiDIY, there is no need of full time professionals or big budgets to make this happen. Even homeschooling parents, or schools in rural areas, may give their disabled pupils the same possibilities, by asking the closest fablab to make a copy of the same 3D prints shown in that article
- DiDIY may help teachers to teach difficult concepts, even to pupils who may be "unreachable" with traditional methods. Students only interested in technology would "absorb" the reasons why Caravaggio's painting style produces 3D prints perfectly usable by blind people very well, and without even realizing it, while printing their own copies. But this is equivalent to say that DiDIY is a great complementary tool to make even "difficult students" learn, understand and love art!
