Tactile Beauty Experience Arts Beyond Sight

The research began in April 2026 with a pilot developed with the National Arts Centre’s Théâtre français.

The challenge: create an offering around Mélanie Binette’s Camions, Fantômes de la liberté (Trucks [Phantoms of Liberty]) accessible to francophone Blind and Low Vision audiences.

Stemming from the events of the 2022 trucker protests known as the “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa, Mélanie Binette invited the public on an audio performance unfolding throughout the public spaces of the National Arts Centre. The journey culminated in a view of Parliament Hill, the site of the truckers’ protests, from one of the NAC’s glass pavilions.

The resulting tactile tour introduced Blind and Low Vision (BLV) francophone participants to the National Arts Centre’s architecture, its public art, and to Camions’ site-specific scenography. By offering this miniature route within one of the NAC’s studios, it also allowed access to audiences with reduced mobility.

Samples of architectural materials were placed on various tactile stations, including concrete, limestone, fiberglass; a miniature canoe made from birch bark and spruce root was passed around, a felt sample from an original Inuit tapestry; miniatures of scenographic elements such as a wooden toy crane, plastic cones, and playful road signs.

In particular, the offering featured a tactile photograph of a 1967 archival image of an original staircase, as well as a prototypal tactile drawing of a view onto Elgin Street and Parliament Hill. Autonomous wayfinding was enabled by a first iteration of a tactile map of the Canal level of the National Arts Centre.

As an audiodescriber with a background in site-specific performance, physical theatre, and art history, I am interested in expanding how audiences can experience visual and performing arts beyond sight. My practice combines artistic research and accessibility, exploring touch as a creative and interpretive medium.

During my Masters’ studies in Performance Making at Goldsmiths College, University of London (2015), I specialized in movement-based, site-specific performance. I began to work in audiodescription after my training with UQAM–Danse-Cité (2021) in Montréal.

I began to grow an interest towards tactile learning after volunteering at the Cavazza Institute for the Blind, in Bologna. I started to deliver tactile tours in Ottawa when working at the National Gallery’s Educational Department. Alongside this pilot project, I am currently mentoring a first francophone audiodescriber at the National Arts Centre.

Thanks to the colleagues, collaborators, consultants, artists, and institutions who have contributed their time, knowledge, expertise, and enthusiasm to this research. Their generosity has been essential to its development.

In particular, I wish to thank the teams at the National Arts Centre, Le milieu de nulle part, MAD Servizi Culturali, Terra Reproductions, and the National Gallery of Canada, as well as the many accessibility consultants and community members who have helped shape this work.

This research has been shaped by an international exchange of knowledge and expertise. In Bologna, Italy, Management Art and Development Cultural Services (MAD Servizi Culturali) provided invaluable graphic design and online consulting support, contributing to the development of tactile materials in Ottawa.

This collaboration enabled me to develop my first tactile photographs, signage, and wayfinding maps, produced locally with the support of local Braille print services Terra Reproductions.

In Ottawa, the Educational Department of the National Gallery of Canada supported the development of a tactile translation of a birch canoe, while the Operations, Digital Experiences & Design, Archives & Exhibitions, Costume, and Accessibility departments of the National Arts Centre contributed to making this first project at the Théâtre français possible.

I am currently pursuing funding opportunities to continue this research beyond the National Arts Centre, including a study stay with MAD Cultural Services (MAD) in Bologna, Italy.

The next phase will focus on further developing tactile tools and approaches through hands-on learning, collaboration with local artists, and testing with Blind and Low Vision communities and accessibility specialists, including a focus group led by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB).

I am also seeking collaborations with universities and academic researchers to further test and evaluate my prototypes before making them available to the public.

Ultimately, I aim to explore tactile interpretation not only as an accessibility strategy, but as an emerging artistic practice—one that opens new possibilities for experiencing contemporary art through touch, sound, movement, and space.