Bologna, Music Museum accessible to the blind thanks to new audio-tactile paths

Bologna’s International Museum and Library of Music becomes accessible to the visually impaired through new audio-tactile paths curated by La Girobussola ONLUS, a city association that works to promote cultural accessibility for the visually impaired and blind by providing appropriate tools.

Thanks to the contribution of the Lions Club Bologna San Petronio, it was possible to design and create supports, such as braille texts, audio files and tactile maps, capable of allowing hypo and blind visitors a thorough and engaging museum visit.

The work has recently been completed: a key part of the project was the creation of a series of relief maps, which in the large A3 format allow for a richly detailed representation of images and objects currently placed in showcases in exhibition halls or not suitable for a tactile approach due to conservation issues.

In particular, through these media, it will be possible to explore some of the most iconic and curious pieces in the collection of musical instruments, such as following the curved line of the serpentone, a wind instrument composed of a perforated “tube” with a serpentine shape, appreciating the unusual marine trumpet and its decorations placed in the foreground, and discovering the harmony of flutes of the brilliant inventor and collector Manfredo Settala, a unique specimen in the world composed of five recorders. The relief representation of the natural twisted horn, which also contains an enlargement of some of its elements, makes it possible to understand its operation, while in the case of the buccina, a picturesque dragon-shaped trombone, the elaborate bell is precisely highlighted.

All of the tactile maps are accompanied by braille texts that guide exploration and inform about the history and characteristics of the object represented, as in the case of the best-known lute accompanied by an in-depth historical excursus that refers to instruments derived from it, such as the archlute and the theorbo in the form of the Khitàra.

The texts also make it possible to address historical-theoretical topics to which the museum’s collection is linked: this is the case with the reproduction of the section of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, which is flanked by a map of it and a map of a staircase amphitheater, placing them side by side and offering important and valuable information on the places where music is performed. With maps devoted to the stave, tabulature, and neumes (in medieval musical notation, graphic signs indicating one or more notes to be played on the same syllable, or a certain way of performing the melody), the texts trace the main moments in the history of music writing from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century.

The mp3 files, which are an audio version of the braille texts, add to the wealth of information already available online, so as to meet the needs of anyone who prefers recorded listening to personal reading. The files are included in the dedicated Museum of Music path of the MuseOn app, available in iOS and Android versions, in which content referring to all the museums of the Bologna Musei Institution is being implemented. To download it and learn about the routes available today: https://museon.it/bolognamusei.

Both braille texts and relief maps will be available upon request at the museum’s own ticket office, where operators will provide the necessary information support on their use.

Bologna, Music Museum accessible to the blind thanks to new audio-tactile paths

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.