January 12, 2021
The Center for Data innovation spoke with Erica Tandori, an artist in residence at Monash University in Australia, who has low vision and is using AI to create multi-sensory art experiences that showcase the wonders of biological life. Tandori discussed how data-driven technologies are helping her create art exhibitions that explore science and biomedicine, enabling greater inclusion, accessibility, and education for low vision, blind, and diverse audiences.
Hodan Omaar: What challenges do people with low vision or blindness face in accessing science, and how are you using artificial intelligence to better communicate scientific ideas?
Erica Tandori: People with low vision or blindness face the challenges of comprehending a predominantly vision-driven world. In science and biomedicine, reliance on data derived from particle accelerators, X-ray crystallography, and microscopes is critically dependent on the ability to see. But this dependence on vision may be unnecessarily limiting. For instance, the sonification of data, which uses non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data, may be an opportunity for those with low vision or blindness to access meaningful information through hearing, and has also been useful for those without impairments.