The National Theater and Concert Hall (NTCH) has created tactile 3D models of its pipe organ for the visually impaired to experience one of the hall’s defining features.
A set of three models of the famous pipe organ at the National Concert Hall in Taipei were made at 1:30 scale, with some parts hand-carved and others made with 3D laser engraving technology, enabling the visually impaired to learn about the instrument through touch and sound.
The models seek to accurately represent the instrument’s intricate construction in its entirety, including its sophisticated construction and carvings, the NTCH said in a statement.
Photo: CNA
The pipes were made with two different materials, and the set also includes a representation of the keyboard.
They are to feature prominently in the hall’s guided touch tours on April 25 and May 29, which people can register for on the NTCH’s Web site, it said, adding that more sessions would be added.
The pipe organ was handmade by world-renowned organ-building company Flentrop in the Netherlands, tailored to the architecture and scale of the venue, the NTCH said.
The 9m-long, 14m-wide instrument was the largest pipe organ in Asia at the time of its completion, it said.
The NTCH has been striving to integrate the values of sustainability and inclusiveness into its operations in the past few years, NTCH general and artistic director Liu Yi-ru (劉怡汝) said.
Barrier-free access and facilities were incorporated in its Performing Arts Library during a renovation in 2021, while accessibility services such as performances accompanied by contextual subtitles and audio descriptions are offered at the theater and concert hall, she added.
Following the success of touch tours launched at the National Theater in 2017, the NTCH this year organized similar tours at the National Concert Hall to make the venue more accessible to the visually impaired.
The tour, which lasts about an hour, showcases the plaza outside the hall, the lobby, the seating areas and the pipe organ, the NTCH said.
Visitors are invited to familiarize themselves with the plaza and surrounding areas with a tactile guidebook, and are encouraged to “get a feel for” the marble walls and the handrails in the lobby, it said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS