O Grupo do Leão, A new Visuality of Access: a methodological proposal around the use of virtual reality in people with visual disabilities

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on the possibilities offered by virtual reality as a mediating element between the artistic object and the visually impaired public. From the photogrammetric digitization and virtual treatment of the painting O Grupo do Leão (1885) by Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro (a key piece of Portuguese Realism), we focus on mechano-haptic feedback as a resource for cognitive and socio-affective inclusion in the museum field. The purpose is to develop and promote a technological prototype (in progress) that makes effective the aesthetic encounter between the visually impaired viewer and the museum object in the most authentic way possible. Finally, some results already obtained during an international research stay carried out at the FCSH Nova from Lisbon around Digital Humanities and History of Art are specified: capture processes and generation of the three-dimensional model, cleaning, and treatment with specialized 3D software to contribute to a new exploration of the senses within the field of visual immersion in museums.