The sound of Art

Project

300445

Status

Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS RISING STARS: concepts or ideas submitted by young talents (aged 30 or less)

Project title

The sound of Art

Full concept/idea title

Description

Try to cover your eyes. What do you see?
For us it's just nothing, for blind people is everything.

We want to give the opportunity to blind people to feel art through senses they have more developed, in places they do not represent their normality, such as museums. Indeed, we decided to spread the vision of art not just through sight, thanks to five young promising artists' writings from around the world and a collaboration with hi-fi products brand Bang & Olufsen. 

What is the geographical scope of your concept/idea?

Does your concept/idea address mainly urban or rural issues?

Does your concept/idea refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations?

Has your concept/idea benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?

Has your concept/idea won an EU prize?

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes ?

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?

Please provide a summary of your concept/ idea

We were challenged to find a solution to the lack of accessibility for blind people in places that are not part of their daily life, such as museums. 

The younger generation is all about inclusivity. And we noticed that, unfortunately, in today’s world, people who suffer from visual disabilities can’t enjoy museums in the same way those who don’t, can.

Through Bang & Olufsen products, a worldwide brand in the market of hifi products, we empowered the visually impaired to experience art for the first time in their lives, through one of the senses they have developed more – hearing.

We created a unique experience in five of the most important museums in the world, Triennale in Milan, Tate Modern in London, Guggenheim in Bilbao, Centre Pompidou in Paris, MoCo museum in Amsterdam and Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin; inviting all kind of people to listen to these beautiful pieces of visual art from another perspective. To do this, and to reach a younger target so that the theme of inclusion could be spread, we partnered with a series of writers and poets, all aged less than 35, from all Europe, to turn these iconic paintings and sculptures into beautiful pieces of written art, using words to describe the magnitude of each.

Please indicate the main themes of your concept/idea with 5 key words

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of environmental sustainability (including circularity) and how these would be met.
Please highlight how the concept/idea can be exemplary in this context

If on one hand we have the aim of a more inclusive world, on the other hand we need people to hear and embrace this message. In order to do that, we created a collaboration with hi-fi items of the brand Bang & Olufsen, the creator of the "Cradle to Cradle" initiative, a very efficient way to look at products. The framework, standard and certification have been created by the commission, which aims to support sustainable development and circular change, by introducing a replaceable, customizable and upgradable approach to products. The certification validates the circular design and sustainable production achievements for the speaker and paves the way for further circular technology developments.

One of the greatest causes of pollution of our days are changes in devices due to technological progress, that leads to tons of items thrown away because they are outdated. With the Cradle to Cradle initiative, everything is replaceable and updates can be downloaded thanks to items' softwares. This way of acting is nothing new to human history, but are we sure that it has always been our first choice?

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these would be met.
Please highlight how the concept/idea can be exemplary in this context

For the realization of our project, we wanted, in terms of aesthetic, not to push to the edges the visual part because the message we want to communicate is completely different to the visive nature. Nevertheless we created OOHs that are very connected to the theme of art since they all portray painting of different artist, such as Magritte, Escher and Morski.

A focus point of our project, the main one, is the experience in museums we have designed. This is a journey through senses that do not take in consideration the sense we associate the most with our daily life, sight. The result is an immersive path in what is life without one of our senses, stressing not that we underestimate, but actually what we cannot feel.

Hearing is one of the most powerful senses because is directly connected to our memory and is one of the main elements of recognition in external stimuli. The result of this experience is seeing through ears for the first time ever. 

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of inclusion (equal opportunities, public participation, citizen engagement, co-design, universal design, accessibility, affordability, etc.) and how these would be met.
Please highlight how the concept/idea can be exemplary in this context

As we said before, this project is all about inclusion for people with disabilities and the places they can get in, so this is our main aim and what understanding everybody's needs really means. Like how it should be in everyday life, empathy is one of the main feelings this project marches on, basically starting with another one feeling very common in people: curiosity. 

This is just the starting point for other inclusivity issues we face nowadays, because the only way to truly be part of changes is embracing the change itself. We often say "if I were you" when we are giving advices, but we are not them and will never be.
For the first time ever we could embody someone else's perspective but not to give them advices, but to help them, because people do not only need advices, sometimes they just want to be heard.

Just when they have been heard, we took part in the change.

Please explain how these three dimensions would be combined in your concept/idea.
Please highlight how this approach can be exemplary

If in schools we learn how to survive in the world by ourself, when we go out we still have much to learn, and this does not happens in places, but with people. "The sound of Art" is something not only made up by people - actually is their exact perspective we are looking from - but is the real place where we can still take a seat and learn from something we have never experienced in our life before: nothing. We are used to think that everything we see is what really happens around us, but there is still a lot more that we can understand, not just through sight.

Oscar Wilde said "Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes" but in this case "experience" is simply what we have seen before we actually learned how to do it. This process will be started only when we leave our old perspective at the hall of the museum but will not know an end, because what we learn is a teaching we must not forget but instead spread through people.

Please highlight the innovative character of the concept/idea as compared to mainstream practices in the field of the concept/idea.

We, talking in general for the whole world, have always been used to see through eyes, but this is not the only way to see. This is the strength and the difference between this project and everything we have always been used to: the perspective.

We have already been in touch with the world of people with disabilities, but we have never entered in their reality, so we do not know what they really feel and react to external incitements. Innovation is another name we can call change, seen from its most positive side, and is what we want to communicate with this project: a new way of seeing things we really never experienced but it has always surrounded us. Until this plan, we have always been in touch with people with disabilities from the outside; outside the unique world they live in, but now with The sound of Art we have the opportunity of entering in this reality and keeping a part of this world inside us, in our mind, so that we can teach it.

Please detail the general plans that you have for the further development, promotion and/or implementation of your concept/idea.

This is just the beginning point for a more conscious knowledge of people with disabilities and their situation. This project could have an evolution not only in more museums, that would mean more artist and pieces of art involved, but also could concern other disabilities given the power of this message. 

Furthermore, we developed our project around just one sense people with disabilities have developed more, but this is not the only one strength they have. indeed, this could be the starting point for a possible evolution on this insight, so that even more people can be reached.

At the end of every experience, people in turn might describe the experience thanks to words, sounds and other elements but images, so that user generated contents shall be produced.

Imagine that your idea/concept is awarded in the New European Bauhaus Prizes 2022. What kind of initiatives would you take throughout the following year (June 2022- June 2023)

We would like to face themes that are very actual, such as the conflict ongoing in Ukraine, but seen from a point of view of brotherhood between countries, connected to the theme of peace.

Another very important topic is nature, because, not only for the war we are on the edge of, is always at risk. What we have at stake is not only our present, but also the future of our next generation, but it seems not to be understood yet.

The world we live in is full of qualities, but also of flaws. What is missing is an effective perspective to watch things from that regards, above all, consciousness that can embrace changes.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1HkroxkWCsvUFEWYkcAkKZmWO-DQRsOkR

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed concept/idea has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes 2022 in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.

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