This interactive artists’ book was designed and created within the context of an experimental/interdisciplinary/research group project, developed in two phases: “Insight” and “Anima.”
1. First phase: Insight.
Insight was an interactive tactile-sound installation that combined touch and sound, promoting participatory and accessibility in art. It was aimed at both sighted and visually impaired individuals, inviting them to interact with an artists’ book containing an excerpt from William Wordsworth’s poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud.” The four pages of the artists’ book contained embossed illustrations of the poem and Braille writing, which, with built-in interactive systems and open-source software, allowed participants to activate the corresponding soundscapes. The installation, incorporating the artists’ book, creative audio description, and a soundscape, aimed to create a multisensory experience for the visitors.
The project approached accessibility as an integral part of the creative process, encouraging experiential participation. By combining poetry, sensory technology and design, it explored how multisensory art can transform the perception of accessibility.
The exhibition was hosted on the ground floor of the Zosimaia Public Central Historical Library of Ioannina, Greece (March 24-28, 2025). This was followed by a remote presentation entitled “Case study: interactive tactile-sound installation INSIGHT. Reinterpreting accessibility through sensory technology and creative design” as part of the 21st Athens Digital Arts Festival (April 3, 2025).
Contributors and members of the curatorial team:
Interactive sound system development, Sound design, Audio introduction (in Greek), Exhibition installation: Dimitris Batsis (a.k.a. DMS).
Artists’ book design and creation, Illustration, Graphic design, Exhibition installation: Athanasios Kokkinos (a.k.a. Arurkokk).
Poem narration: Visnja Stankovic.
Creative audio description narration, Audio introduction (in English): Zalie Burrow.
Transcription into Braille, Embossed printing of images: Loukia Chrysafi, Equal Access Unit, University of Ioannina, Greece.
Technical support for artistic bookbinding (cutting & cardboard lining): Vasiliki Panourgia (Platon Bookbinding).
Accessibility curation and poem selection: Christos Stavrou.
In collaboration with the Department of Visual Arts and Art Sciences of the School of Fine Arts of the University of Ioannina, Greece and the Department of Culture and Creative Media and Industries of the University of Thessaly, Greece.
2. Second phase: Anima.
Anima examined the dynamic relationship between insight and imagination in the context of the creative process and their interaction with aesthetic experience. In order to perceive beyond the immediate or the obvious, one must activate non-cognitive imagination, a way of thinking that allows new associations and intuitive connections to emerge. Adults, who over time have become accustomed to filtering or suppressing sensory stimuli such as sound and image, often experience a reduced imaginative response. In contrast, children have a more vivid and uninhibited imaginative capacity, which thrives in the absence of rigid logic or accumulated empirical limitations. Through spontaneous actions such as sketching, musical expression and play, children create instinctive and emotionally charged interpretations of their environment, which often reflect greater immediacy, sensitivity, and symbolic complexity than those usually produced by adults. Based on this understanding and drawing on our own pedagogical experience, we chose to involve 8-10 year-old students in the activity, allowing their imaginative processes to shape its development and results.
Anima explored the relationship between sound and painting, as it emerges from children’s imagination. It was based on the system we created for Insight: an artists’ book with touch-sensitive pages, incorporating the Arduino Nano system and SuperCollider software, allowing participants to activate corresponding soundscapes. For the purposes of Anima, the above system was redesigned as a research tool that explores the relationship between sound, image, and imagination. The redesigned book consisted of four pages, each of which was programmed so that when pressure was applied, sounds of different animals (real and imaginary) were heard, which were activated/selected randomly from a curated sound bank. The sounds were only activated when the page was pressed, creating a direct, physical relationship between the child and the book-object, emphasizing interaction and materiality, with the aim of stimulating the children’s interest. The only instruction given to the students was to translate the auditory stimuli into visual forms by drawing what they heard on the pages of the book, as they imagined it. In this way, the act of listening was transformed into a process of creative interpretation.
A continuous soundscape accompanied the action, providing a backdrop that maintained attention and bridged the silences. Its purpose was to support the flow of imagination and encourage deeper engagement in the process. Within the pedagogical context, the overall design of the activity aimed to support a playful yet meaningful integration of sensory perception, physical interaction, and creative response, in order to explore the dynamic relationship between insight and imagination, as well as their interaction with aesthetic experience, through the creative process of a group project.
The activity took place at the Art Workshop of the Municipality of Ioannina, Greece, on November 6, 2025. The process was recorded through video, audio recordings, and photographs.
Contributors and members of the curatorial team:
Athanasios Kokkinos (a.k.a. Arurkokk) and Dimitris Batsis (a.k.a. DMS).
Audiovisual documentation: