[accessibleimage] Dual Vision

VSA arts of Indiana

http://www.vsai.org/enroute.html
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Indianapolis Star, IN, USA
Friday, April 06, 2007

"Dual Vision" puts the blind in touch with art
By S.L. Berry Caption: Melodie Carr's adaptation of the book "The Dot and the Line" features text and illustrations for both blind and sighted readers. Pages from it make up "Dual Vision," opening today. - Photo provided by VSA arts of Indianapolis 
Dual Vision

When: Opening receptions from 6 to 9 p.m. today and next Friday. The show runs 
through April 27.
Where: enROUTE Gallery, 1505 N. Delaware St.
Cost: Free.
Information: (317) 974-4123. 
At first, "art for the blind" seems to be an oxymoron.
After all, isn't art made to be seen? And wouldn't being unable to see make art inaccessible? 
Not necessarily, contends Muncie-based artist Melodie Carr. She has created art 
that combines visual elements for the sighted and tactile ones for the blind.
The results go on display today in "Dual Vision," Carr's exhibition at VSA Arts 
of Indiana's enROUTE Gallery, inside the Harrison Center for the Arts.
Carr was motivated by her discovery that few books for the visually impaired 
allow them to enjoy illustrations alongside Braille text.

Using the book "The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics," Carr 
created a version that's tactile as well as visual, making both the words and pictures 
accessible to blind and sighted readers. The book, by Norton Juster, is the tale of a 
line that falls in love with a red dot.
The exhibition is based on Carr's work with Juster's book, and features pages 
from the book that visitors can touch as well as view.

Including tactile illustrations was a revolutionary concept in publishing for 
the blind, said Carr in a recent telephone interview. So much so that one of 
the major publishers of Braille texts refused to do the project, even after 
Carr spent a year perfecting a technique for making the illustrations touchable.
"They didn't like the fact that I wanted to lay out the Braille text the same way 
the text in the original book had been laid out," said Carr.
"They also didn't like the fact that I wanted to bind the book in leather instead of 
the paper binding that's used on most books for the blind. But I wanted blind readers to 
experience a book as much as possible the way sighted readers do."

Carr prevailed, finding another organization with Braille printing equipment to 
help her produce an edition of five leather-bound books. Those books were 
greeted enthusiastically when they were unveiled at a conference for the blind.
The limited production run was due to the time-intensive production process, 
much of which had to be done by hand. So, to make her work more accessible, 
Carr developed the exhibition, using extra, unbound pages.
"It exposes sighted people to something they don't normally experience," says Carr, who 
is a dancer as well as a book artist, "and blind people to something new -- the chance to 
experience illustrations as well as text."



http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070406/ENTERTAINMENT01/704060301/1005/ENTERTAINMENT

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