Touch Beyond Vision Exhibition at the Oxo Tower

Today we're at the Oxo Tower for a very special exhibition called Touch Beyond Vision and it's created by a company called Carve Co. So I'm just standing in front of one of the exhibits and I can look out onto the Thames here, the very mucky Thames, and this is a 3D relief picture of David Bowie. So today we've had people who are visually impaired and blind who've come to see the exhibition or experienced the exhibition. They've been able to feel all the exhibits. So there's David Bowie here, there's Shirley Bassey next. And these reliefs are based on photographs. So the photograph has been taken and the 3D relief has been carved from that. So we had the exhibition full of people with white canes which is exactly what the end result was hoped to be. People listening to the audio description of each of the items.

So the one I'm standing in front of now is Edinburgh Castle. So Chris and I went round and we felt all the different exhibits. And I'm just walking over now and this is Winston Churchill. I got Chris to guess who the person was or what the place was and then some of them he listened to the audio description and was able to feel all the different details. So for example, with Winston Churchill, he's got a polka dot bow tie on so you can feel the polka dots raised up on the tie. He's got his traditional hat on and he's doing the peace sign. We met Lucy Edwards here today and she didn't know that Winston Churchill traditionally used to stand doing that sign, the peace sign.

And what did Chris look at? Chris looked at something. Oh yeah, this one over here. So this one is Mo Farah and he used to do the, I think it was called the Mo Bot where he put two hands on his head. I think it was meant to be sort of a love heart shape, I don't know. Anyway, Chris had no idea that he did that because obviously if he'd been on television, Chris wouldn't have seen it. This goes back to 2015 when Mo Farah won the gold. So there's been quite a few revelations but lots of people have just, you've just heard wow and people just really enjoying the exhibition.

So we're here now for the evening reception. So there are going to be about 8 or 10 guide dogs here. Some other blind people, other people from galleries. So the idea behind the project is that you could take a picture in a gallery or even a sculpture and do the 3D relief carving and then people could feel it. So if you stood at the bottom of Big Ben if you're blind and you've always been blind you might not know what that looks like. But if there was a carving at the bottom that you could feel and some audio description you have a better idea of the building that you were standing outside.

So yeah, it's been a great day. Um, we're just waiting now. What time is it now? Uh, 10 minutes past six so people will be starting to arrive. Chris is speaking tonight. The picture of his dad is here. So he had one of his photographs converted into a 3D relief and that's been playing on the video all day. Chris talking about the experience. So he's going to be talking tonight about the importance of this technology.

So yeah, I shall report back later. I'll take a few photographs and share those. And yeah, look out for Carve Co and Touch Beyond Vision. Which hopefully, this is just a one day exhibition. But hopefully there will be some other exhibitions around the country as well. So I'll let you know. Thank you, bye.