Solid Light: Cynthia Torp’s Unique Model

We’ve been learning about the creation of The Dot Experience through the lens of the team at Solid Light. We spoke with founder, Owner, and CEO of Solid Light, Cynthia Torp, about how this project fits Solid Light as a whole, and what it might change in the local community, museum world, and beyond. 

From visiting museums all over the country as a child, to designing her first exhibit, museums have always been a part of Cynthia’s life. With experience in architecture, construction, and advertising, it’s no wonder that Cynthia brought her multi-disciplinary spirit into founding her own museum design/build firm. It’s important to Cynthia that she delivers the best possible process and end product to all clients, so she created the unique model of keeping all pieces of a museum build in-house, from design to immersive media, to fabrication. “It’s like a playground, but it’s a serious playground. All the different talents it takes to do a thing like this are pretty incredible.  We’ve got some great people,” Torp said about Solid Light’s comprehensive model. 

Think Local 

The collaborative and comprehensive model of Solid Light’s in-house approach is amplified by our shared hometown of Louisville, Ky. Both quiet giants in the local community, this project has given Solid Light and APH the opportunity to lift each other up while discovering and inventing things that “neither one would have invented without the other.”  

The hometown nature of this project, coupled with the on-site fabrication facilities at Solid Light, has been invaluable in the creation of The Dot Experience, as it gives us the ability to test multiple iterations of a component in real time with our local Inclusive Prototyping Focus Group (IFPG). This group’s feedback is directly driving the fabrication of The Dot Experience, and Cynthia said that “it’s been exciting watching those groups work together to find the best for everybody”.  

Spreading Inclusive Design 

While Cynthia hopes “Louisville and the community embrace [The Dot Experience] and develop a real sense of pride for this,” The Dot Experience aims to lead as an inclusive model for museums everywhere. An internationally renowned firm, Solid Light has always focused on expanding ways for people to access information, and this project has given the team even more ways to ensure equitable access to information for all visitors.  

“The other thing…is not othering,” Cynthia reflected. While some museums may offer a limited tactile tour, or an ASL tour scheduled weeks in advance, these additive accessibility features do not provide a truly equitable experience. The Dot Experience has baked inclusive design in since the very start, enhancing the experience for all.  “There are so many things we’ve discovered about making an experience tactile by using textures and solving the issue of keeping artifacts behind glass. Even people who are sighted will gain so much from a tactile experience…these tools help us all.” 

Crusading Accessibility 

At its crux, The Dot Experience aims to work toward a more welcoming world for all. Both Solid Light and The Dot Experience have been out in the museum field, featured in major field publications like Museum Magazine, and sharing our experiences in conference presentations and sessions promoting the mission of a more welcoming world. Part of Cynthia’s role has been to “help promote the project out there, particularly in the museum world, and help crusade” for inclusive design and accessibility. “I’m going to keep talking about it,” Cynthia shared, “We have to keep singing the song and shouting it from the mountaintops.”