Multisensory activities
Using different approaches in outreach activities enriches the overall experience and offers multiple points of view to all people, regardless of their abilities.
The UNIVERS@LL working group is engaged in the universal design of content that makes use of multisensory stimuli both to provide access to information for those who cannot see or hear and to enrich the experience of everyone.
The main activities carried out are listed below.
Design of a multisensory planetarium
The multisensory planetarium is an exhibit designed to give every public, regardless of their access to different sensory stimuli (thus including people who are deaf, blind, or visually impaired), equal access to observing and exploring the night sky. The design consists of a plexiglass dome containing stars which are represented using metal rods that produce different sensory stimuli associated with physical quantities: light and sound intensity to express apparent magnitude and vibration for distance.
Participation in the “Festival Punti di Vista”
The Festival Punti di Vista is organized by the Educational Services and Art Laboratory of Palazzo Esposizioni (Rome). The first edition was held in 2022 with a focus on tactility and saw the participation of the UNIVERS@LL team with the exhibition path “Under the same sky”. The group also participated in the planning of the second edition of the festival, held in 2024, with a focus on deaf audiences and LIS as part of the INAF “Time Machines” exhibition.
Italian translation of the planetarium show “Audio Universe - Journey into the Solar System”
"Audio Universe - Journey into the Solar System" is a planetarium show produced by the British universities of Newcastle and Portsmouth with the collaboration of INAF. It uses sonification to audibly represent astronomical data, allowing listeners to ‘hear’ the stars and planets. The group participated in translating the text into Italian language and broadcasting it at several Italian planetariums and festivals.
Design of tactile boards
On the occasion of the “Machines of Time” exhibition, the group participated in the design of eight wooden tactile boards representing the phases of the Moon inspired by the original drawings by Galileo Galilei. The boards were displayed at the atelier of Palazzo Esposizioni Roma for the duration of the exhibition.
Sonification of one of the images on display at “Macchine del Tempo” exhibition
The sonification was made possible through the use of the Herakoi sotware, which allows people to “hear” images, producing sounds that correspond to the physical characteristics of the image area indicated by the user with his or her hand. For the occasion, the authors (Michele Ginolfi and Luca Di Mascolo, in collaboration with Emanuele Scalise) developed a new version of the software, Expokoi, optimized for exhibitions and public events.