[community] Best Practices for Describing Art in Alt Text

Tue Nov 14 17:39:26 UTC 2017

Hi,

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any "Perfect" alternative description of an
artwork yet. I recently read this article about verbal/audio description
tours of "Florine Stettheimer”'s paintings. The verbal description
perfectly talks about the details of the artworks such as; colors,
composition and movements, but when you read or listen to it you will
experience the same thing as reading a business article in your morning
newspaper.

You can find the article here at:
https://stories.thejewishmuseum.org/seeing-florine-stettheimers-heat-through-language-41026a0aee4c

As a sighted person, the philosophy behind an art work means more than the
artwork itself to me. If our aim is to provide an accessible description of
an art piece, then we are responsible to communicate that philosophy as
well. I love "Expressionism" because its goals were not to reproduce the
impression suggested by the surrounding world, but to strongly impose the
artist’s own sensibility to the world’s representation. The expressionists
used the expressive possibilities of color and line to explore dramatic and
emotion-laden themes, to convey the qualities of fear, horror, and the
grotesque, or simply to celebrate nature with hallucinatory intensity. They
broke away from the literal representation of nature in order to express
more subjective outlooks or states of mind. When you look at one the "Otto
Dix”'s paintings, all the elements of the painting will awaken your inner
senses; anger, laugh or sadness. The intention of an artist is what forces
you to think, to enter your mind and challenge your emotions.

So how easy is to describe an expressionism artwork to a person with visual
disability? No one can be “Marcel Proust”!! It’s hard to be him and be able
to describe a piece of art in those spectacular detailed wordings (although
I believe he shares his own perception of a painting with the reader but
still!). Therefore, I believe writing an accessible alternative description
of a painting needs to be done by the help of art experts and historians.

(If you’re interested to see some example of painting description is
Proust’s literature see:
https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/paintings-in-proust-vol-1-swanns-way/
)

Thanks and regards,

*Feriyal Hallajarani | *Web Accessibility Consultant | IBM
Email: feriyal.hallaj at gmail.com
Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/feriyalharani

On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 11:02 AM, Caren Watkins <carenwatkins at gmail.com>
wrote:

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ET3O_iJwA4
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 10:56 AM, Caren Watkins <carenwatkins at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi John, what I know is in 2015 Johanna Contreras held the position
> > Senior Advisor, Inclusion at the ROM. I'm not sure if she is still there
> or
> > even if that position still exists. Keep us posted if possible.
> > Caren
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 10:29 AM, John W (personal) <
> > pickupwillis at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Caren, one possibility is that the show I'm referring to is a
> visiting
> >> exhibit from Sweden, so thei reasoning may be that the ROM is not wholly
> >> responsible for how it is put together. However, I am writing to the
> ROM to
> >> express my concern that the institution should be educating its partners
> >> around the world that here in Ontario we do not mount shows that cannot
> be
> >> experienced inclusively by all patrons.
> >>
> >> I would like to cc my comments to the Senior Advisor - do you have a
> name?
> >>
> >> j
> >>
> >> On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 10:23 AM, Caren Watkins <carenwatkins at gmail.com
> >
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> I'm wondering what happened to the position of Senior Advisor,
> Inclusion
> >>> at the ROM? Johanna Contreras, the accessibility advisor at the ROM
> >>> spoke at the Accessibility Conference in Guelph a couple of years ago
> and
> >>> the museum seemed to be heading in a very good direction!
> >>>
> >>> On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 9:52 AM, John Willis <pickupwillis at gmail.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> I am afraid I have no expertise in this area, except as a user of
> >>>> alternative text - and I hope once these best practises are
> identified we
> >>>> can all send them to the Royal Ontario Museum, where the current show
> on
> >>>> Viking culture is an  apalling example of non-inclusive Design: very
> text
> >>>> heavy, no audio, no tactile, no braille. Really shocking for a
> publicly
> >>>> subsidized institution
> >>>>
> >>>> Good luck Andrea, your work is very important!
> >>>>
> >>>> John D. Willis
> >>>> Design & innovation in Public Services
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> > On Nov 13, 2017, at 15:02, Andrea Lamarre <alamarre at uoguelph.ca>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Hello all,
> >>>> >
> >>>> > I am wondering if anyone has come across best practices for
> >>>> describing art in alternative text? I can find many examples of best
> >>>> practices for alternative text in general but not for art
> specifically.
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > I want to do justice to the art but I am not always sure what the
> >>>> intention of the artist was in creating the piece, nor am I always
> sure
> >>>> myself what the elements of the art piece are. I am trying to balance
> >>>> respect for artistry and respect for accessibility. My words about
> the art
> >>>> will necessarily be coloured by my own interpretation of the piece.
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Any thoughts would be very welcome.
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Thank you!
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Andrea
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Andrea LaMarre
> >>>> >
> >>>> > PhD Candidate, FRHD
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition
> >>>> >
> >>>> > University of Guelph
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator
> >>>> >
> >>>> > ReVision Centre for Art and Social Justice
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > alamarre at uoguelph.ca
> >>>> >
> >>>> > 519 993 6435
> >>>> > ________________________________________
> >>>> > Inclusive Design Community (community at lists.idrc.ocadu.ca)
> >>>> > To manage your subscription, please visit:
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> >>>> ________________________________________
> >>>> Inclusive Design Community (community at lists.idrc.ocadu.ca)
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> >>>> https://lists.idrc.ocadu.ca/mailman/listinfo/community
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> *John D. Willis | *
> >> *CMRP, MDes *Inclusive design, strategy and research
> >> Toronto CANADA
> >>
> >> Web: www.jdwillis.ca
> >> LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/tojohnw
> >> Twitter: @TOjohnw
> >> Skype: johnwillis416
> >>
> >>
> >
> ________________________________________
> Inclusive Design Community (community at lists.idrc.ocadu.ca)
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