Hello and welcome to the first stop of this guide to ‘Jason and the Adventure of 254.’ This is Jason Wilsher-Mills’ most monumental and personal exhibition to date. My name is Shamita Sharmacharja, I am the curator of the show and I am going to explain how this guide works.
There are ten stops, each three to five minutes long.
This first stop provides some useful practical information. To skip to information about the exhibition go to stop 2, which is an introduction to the show and the artist Jason Wilsher-Mills.
In stops 3 to 10 Jason talks about his life and the inspirations behind some of his work. This is combined with some visual description of the artworks. Everything in the gallery – including the artworks – can be touched.
A white tactile floor line is designed to support wayfinding between the stops. It takes you round the gallery in a clockwise direction. When you arrive at an artwork which has a stop, this is indicated on the floor by a white square with raised dots.
You will find a tactile QR code and stop number within arm's reach of the white square. The QR code is roughly the size of a side plate, and numbers are tactile and located either on the wall, on a dark orange metal stand next to the work or on the work itself.
If you need any assistance, there is a member of the Visitor Experience team in the gallery, wearing a Wellcome Collection t-shirt.
The large brightly coloured gallery is 32 metres long and nine metres wide, with walls four metres high. The floor line from the main entrance brings you in halfway along a soft pink wall. This first stop is at the dark orange pick-up station, which is to your left as you enter. You can also pick up a large-print guide here.
There is a long yellow wall opposite the entrance, covered with large drawings and texts. The flooring is smooth light wood.
At the left end of this pick-up station you will find a screen with BSL interpretation and pale pink large-print guides at the right end. The large-print guides include a map of the floor line, as well as a list of all the digital guide stops. You will also find a dark blue Visual Story booklet. This provides pre-visit information about the exhibition, using images, symbols and short written explanations.
With your back to the pick-up station, there are three benches in the middle of the gallery. These have arms and backs.
The tactile floor line will finish at Stop 10, close to the main entrance where we started. This is also an exit, so there will be visitors moving in both directions. You are of course free to stay and explore.
This is the end of Stop 1. Stop 2 is an introduction to the exhibition and gives information about the artist. With the pick-up station on your left, follow the tactile floor line to the tactile square for Stop 2, which is a couple of metres further on.