Beyond Vision:
Black Country Women —
An Interactive Sound Journey
Beyond Vision: Black Country Women — An Interactive Sound Journey is an immersive, interactive, spatial sound experience of Warley Woods, built with a blind programmer and sound designer using a Meta Quest to enable room-scale navigation, with a gamified path to listen to oral histories of women from Sandwell Visually Impaired. It is built in Hodr, a visually impaired accessible games engine with the support of RedNaught: Build Games, No Code, No Limits
Date: Thursday 6th March 6:00pm-9:00pm launch of prototype and exhibition
Date: Friday 7th March 11:00am - 4:00pm community pariticpant day
Place: 1000 Trades on the Park, Lightwoods House, Adkins Ln, Bearwood, Smethwick B67 5DP
Cost: FREE
The Team
Sarah-Ann Cromwell
Sarah-Ann Cromwell works in spatial audio, immersive experience design, and accessibility, creating audio-led environments that improve access for visually impaired users and support mindfulness, learning, and inclusive engagement, she was awarded the WMCA Activate Skills Development Grant to undertake further study in Audio Description and blind gaming. She has 20+ years’ experience in creative education and performance coaching (PGCE), is an arts coordinator for Sandwell Visually Impaired and is an award-winning international operatic comedian and choir conductor.
Freya Shaw
Freya Shaw is a registered blind musician, sound designer, software developer, founder of Immersion Sound Studio Ltd, and developer of Hodr Engine a no-code development tool for visually impaired developers. She has shared her knowledge of accessible game development at many events including SLUSH, SpillKonventet, Electric Spring, and the Innovation Festival. Freya aims to inspire creators and players alike, and to prove you don't need sight to have vision.
John Thornewall
John Thornewill of Red Nought has created games ranging from Ivor the Engine and the Clangers through to cutting edge full-motion VR simulator experiences and is building the underlying game-engine that allows visually impaired gamers to play complex games without assistance.