The Polygon Gallery engaged LET’S in providing on-site feedback for the gallery’s “Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia” exhibition. The Polygon was interested in exploring how to make the exhibition more low sensory friendly for visitors on their low sensory night. This was an interesting consultation opportunity, due to the exhibition’s overwhelming visual, sonic, and physical intensity, and its densely structured maze-like multimedia environment, including 52 monitors.
LET’S did a walkthrough with gallery staff. LET’S’ staff person has sensory issues and was quite overwhelmed by the exhibition, even as they admired the whole display. We were able to make suggestions on how to reduce the intensity of the sensory overload. It was obvious that staff had already given it a lot of thought. They had great suggestions.
It was a challenge to reduce the sensory experience because the overwhelm was a purposeful part of the exhibition. We were conscious of not reducing so much that the impact of the display was not felt. Balancing accessibility with the artists’ evocative exhibition was a thought-provoking exercise. We were very happy with the balance that we struck. We heard the event went extremely well. The gallery received positive feedback from neurodivergent folks and visitors, who were unaware it was a reduced sensory night, who benefited from the reduction in sensory stimuli.