"More Than Meets The Eye" Animated VR Experience

Identifying case-studies and participants The purpose of the research trip and discussions with The Royal National Institute of Blind (RNIB), The Scottish Sensory Centre based at Edinburgh University, VocalEyes London, Dr Alison Eardley University of Westminster and Dr Hannah Thompson Royal Holloway University was two-fold. Firstly, to identify stakeholders and blind participants for a series of Public Engagement events, both within the scope of the research project and for future legacy and ongoing collaborations. Secondly, to identify blind art-practitioners for case study. Case-Study In terms of exclusion/inclusion criteria, participants must be over 18 years old, legally blind or visually impaired, of sound mind and capable of making decisions for themselves. David Johnson David Johnson is a blind artist, who was sighted as a child and became blind in adulthood. Completely blind, with no light awareness, Johnson uses a wide variety of materials, including

RNIB Edinburgh To establish wider network connections and discuss Public Engagement opportunities, a research visit was made in June 2019, to the Royal National Institute of Blind (RNIB) Scotland’s head office in Edinburgh. Keen to develop engagement with the general public through art, as a route to better understand the spectrum of vision and sight-loss, the RNIB have embarked on creative projects with collaborators including the Royal College of Art How We See: Representation and Communication around visual impairment (RNIB, 2019 ) . During the introductory meeting the practice-output of this project was discussed with RNIB Scotland’s East of Scotland Volunteer, Daniel Meikle (blind) and Scotland Community Facilitator, Jane Coates (sighted) will co-facilitate the event, providing training sessions and transport for blind artists (clients) of the RNIB. Fully supportive and enthusiastic of this project, the RNIB in Edinburgh aim to be in contact throughout the project, wi

Dr Alison Eardley – University of Westminster The early research of Eardley, explored the imagination and imagery in the blind and the sighted with current work in the field of multi-sensory museums (Eardley et al. , 2018) and initial email contact established further connections to recruit hard to reach population sub-group participants for case-study using snowball sampling (Sadler et al. , 2010) . Case-study contacts, stemming from the initial email correspondence with Dr Eardley are outlined in the case-study section later in this document. Building upon this research her work in the field of multi-sensory museums, Eardley suggests that research in cognitive neuroscience and psychology have shown that multisensory exposure enhances performance for perceptual and memory tasks (Eardley et al. , 2018) . The discussion meeting with Dr Eardley, focused toward her research in the differentiation between visual and spatial, defined as visio-spatial . Eardley studies the wo

Storyfutures , National Centre for Immersive Storytelling.  Royal Holloway University Dr Hannah Thompson Prior to the research trip to London, Dr Alison Eardley provided details of fellow academic, Dr Hannah Thompson, based within the Royal Holloway University, as a research connection in the field of visual impairment.  Dr Hannah Thompson is a partially-blind British academic and disability activist and blog creator of The Blind Spot (Thompson, 2019). Her research reflects upon blindness in history, literature, art, film and society and in collaboration with Vanessa Warne of the University of Manitoba, Canada delivered the international micro-arts Blind Creative Conference in London (Thompson and Warne, 2015). Defining ‘blind’ as anyone who relates to the world using senses other than sight, the conference included a plenary talk, keynote speakers, an art exhibition. A face-to-face meeting with Dr Thompson was conducted in July 2019 to discuss this project and Dr Thomp

VocalEyes - London - Research Trip 4th July Accessibility, as an integral part of blind art practice representation, is a principle that the audio-transcribe charitable organisation, VocalEyes, also adhere to. Established in 1998, initially to help theatres and producers meet the needs of blind and partially-sighted audiences (VocalEyes, 2019) has since expanded its work into other areas including museums, galleries, heritage sites and architecture. Through the practice and context review, VocalEyes were identified as a potential network connection with a research trip conducted in July 2019 and a meeting held with Matthew Cock (Chief Executive), Anna Fineman (Museums and programmes manager) and Rachel Hutchinson (doctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Westminster). During the discussion about this research project, the VocalEyes team emphasised the need for accessibility to be an integral part of the design process and methods of the final practice-based

Professor John Ravenscroft – Scottish Sensory Centre The starting point for the scoping the research network began at the Scottish Sensory Centre, based in Edinburgh University, which works collaboratively with professionals, parents and young people and aims to foster educational research activities relating to children and young people with a sensory impairment in Scotland. Proactively offering high quality professional development activities to enhance knowledge and understanding of issues relating to sensory impairment, the SSC promotes the exchange and dissemination of specialist knowledge and acts as a hub for other organisations by contributing to and taking forward specialist professional networking (SSC, 2019) . Professor Ravenscroft’s research is concerned with the field of visual impairment (Ravenscroft, 2019) focusing towards Cerebral (Cortical) Visual Impairment (CVI) and the interesting notion of representation and supramodality , meaning that the brain does not