Constellations Tactile Image

thingiverse

Part of a wider collection of tactile images for blind and partially sighted people, these 3D printed constellations are designed to be understood through touch, with a laser cut board functioning as a template to show the formations relation to one another in the night sky. Created in partial fulfilment of the requirements of a PhD at the University of Huddersfield, the thesis includes resources and information to aid in the design and creation of tactile images from both a professional and engaged amateur audience. “Constellations lend themselves well to my already established form of tactile translation, circles and lines are simple to replicate and such models apply many of the same principles of raised line drawing that we utilise in other works, albeit in a less complex or pattern centric way. Even these rudimentary depictions can be used to explain formation, proximity and relation to other constellations, offering translations of broadly accessible information that does not necessarily have obvious application. Indeed, whilst wayfinding is one of the primary reasons to know of constellations and to be able to recognise them in relation to one another, it is not a skill that most of us apply on a regular basis. Many of us may know of Orion by virtue of having looked up at the sky, noting such celestial landmarks as Cassiopeia or the North star not as tools for survival, but as a connection to our collective histories and the shared stories that surround them. Blind people may know the existence and names of these formations, they might also be familiar with the heroes and legends that birthed them, but a tangible visual understanding of a constellation is not something easily conveyed through description alone. To say Orion bears a striking resemblance to a human figure, or that either of the two Ursa formations are clear depictions of bears, is perhaps overstating their similarities to their name sakes. A degree of imaginative vision is required to understand these forms within the contexts of their mythos, and within that context it is not unreasonable to expect these depictions to be available to those without sight. Indeed, this can be thought of as both offering access to imagery contained within a shared visual lexicon, and as a way of providing a tactile approximation of an already abstracted form” (Crumlish, 2023) https://pure.hud.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/access-to-the-aesthetic