What is the activity?
Digital Wheel Art is an interactive system that helps individuals with disabilities express themselves artistically. A user drives own wheelchair in a room while the system follows the movement of wheelchair by detecting infrared signals, and the system projects the lines onto screen in real-time. It also gives general audiences an opportunity to explore and rethink disabilities through art.
"Digital Wheel Art is a rare and uplifting example of how the tools of technology and art can be combined in new ways to help unlock hidden creative talents, providing those with physical challenges, who are so often left behind, a dynamic and powerful new vehicle for self-expression." - Kathleen S. Wilson (VP, Creative Director, Viacom Interactive Services)
Instructions on how to facilitate?
The system works by sending data from a Wiimote attached to a wheelchair over Bluetooth to a painting program displayed on the screen. The program then draws lines based on the path of the wheelchair, and the user can change colors by tilting his or her head on a ball on the right side of the
chair, which cycles through the different options.
Then the drawings can be saved. The saved drawing data include the actual brushstrokes of the dynamic drawing process so it is expected that we can have a profound understanding of creative moments.
Who might benefit from this activity?
Anyone in search of alternate methods of self-expression for people with physical disabilities. Especially those who use a wheelchair for mobility.
Materials: Wiimote, bluetooth, display screen, and wheelchair!
Contradictions:
There is no question of this products ingenuity and are no contradictions to be found other than the cost. It clearly is a wonderful opportunity but it seems like an expensive technology and settings with people with physical disabilities may not have the funding to provide such an activity!
Special Considerations:
Therapist may want to talk about stigma of the wheelchair. This is because of the transformation this technology has to change the wheelchair from a practical tool that assists a person with a disability (a symbol of stigma) into a tool for self-expression and art-making!
"Digital Wheel Art is the best example I've seen in a long time of how technology can enable and empower personal and artistic expression. It proves, in a truly elegant and emotional way, that physical limitation need not be a barrier to creative expression." - Nancy Hechinger (Adjunct Professor, New York University)
No comments:
Post a Comment