Datum| The Art Side of the Moon

Project Details

Awards & Nominations

Datum has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!

Global Nominee

The Challenge | The Art Side of the Moon

Fifty years ago, generations were inspired when humans made a giant leap and walked on the moon. Today, NASA is committed to returning to the moon and beyond! Your challenge is to create an artistic work to communicate, inform, or inspire others about humanity’s return to the moon.

Inspiration

Helping the blind to see Apollo 11 through their own language

Datum

BACKGROUND

We've seen and was greatly inspired by the Apollo 11's mission. But the story of NASA's Robert Shelton, who lost most of his eyesight at eleven years old didn't stop him from pursuing science and mathematics. It was said that nearly 100,000 students was reported to be blind and there are that shares the same story as Robert. We sought to create a tool that will help the blind community to be able to see space exploration as especially Apollo 11, through their own unique ways which is through audio, touch and voice. The estimated number of people visually impaired in the world is 285 million, imagine if we could reach out to them and take them through the journey of getting to the Moon. Our solution is Inspiration, helping the blind to experience Apollo 11 through their own language.

SOLUTION

How do we do it? Inspiration is a website where the user can take a journey to the moon just by scrolling downwards. We used audio, image and video dataset provided by NASA to reconstruct the entire story that was fitted towards the blind. Mainly using audio as a guide and telling the story through audio. User can interact with the website by using voice when prompted such as using voice to launch the rocket or landing on the moon. Some point during the journey, user will be prompt to use touch/click to activate special functionality. Users could help each other by sharing it on their social media and through word of mouth, we wanted more people to use Inspiration. We believe that through these interaction, Inspiration can truly inspire the blind about humanity's return to the moon.

Nelson Mandela once said that "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart". We hope through Inspiration, we can touch not just your hearts but the blind as well.

Project URL: https://artofthemoon.appspot.com/


List of resources:

  1. https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/moonpage.html
  2. https://www.nasa.gov/connect/sounds/index.html
  3. https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html
  4. https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html
  5. https://archive.org/details/nasa
  6. https://archive.org/details/nasaaudiocollection
  7. https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/helping-blind-see-math-science-k4.html