[accessibleimage] Mountains,Tibet,Art,Space and Seas

Hi,
Some articles and links. Common thread seems to be
frontiers- above and below sea level. 
First off links about Tibet, mountain climbing and the
Braille with Out Borders organization. Here I have sent
links, to the sites and news articles, including the article
by Oliver Sachs who writes about Sabriye Tenberken founder
of Braille Without Borders. Great!  Next up link and article
about an artist in Michigan, an exhibition at the Naval
Historical Center in Washington D.C and finally Nasa Space
Camp created  with the National Federation of The Blind.
All the best,
Lisa

A whole tactile experience- Tibet expedition
http://www.climbingblind.org
has worked together with a project in Tibet Braille Without
Borders
http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/ An educational project
started by Sabriye Tenberken, doing an incrediably lot. She
has created the first Tibetan Braille system, and they are
working on the development of a new Braille typewriter.
link to the article which tells about her and others from
The New Yorker by Oliver Sacks
THE MIND'S EYE, What the blind see
http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/Ny2003.html
>From the New York Times
http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/NYT2003.html
Hong Kong Morning Post
http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/HKMP2003.html
Xinhua News Agency
http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/XH2003.html

Text follows links
artist
http://www.freep.com/entertainment/newsandreviews/aaaf21_20040721.htm
museum
http://www.dcmilitary.com/navy/tester/9_29/features/30230-1.html
Nasa 
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/jul/HQ_04234_blind_students.html 

Excerpt from a longer article 
ANN ARBOR ART FAIRS 2004 | OBJECT LESSONS: Most work at the
fairs stimulates the eye; these women's compositions
stimulate the mind 

A new way to see
For Rachel Zamek, 40, the greatest message in her art could
be her personal drama of perseverance, overcoming a
condition that has left her legally blind, relying on her
sense of touch and dexterity to assemble her works. 
They appear in wooden boxes, some as large as 3-by-5-feet
and others in tiny thimbles that can be held in her palm.
She combines images, found objects, handmade paper and text
in a narrative that floats -- a mystery under glass. 

"My limited field of vision makes me aware of how different
people can see things," she says. 

Before earning her master of fine arts degree from the
University of Michigan three years ago, Zamek worked for
organizations helping people with disabilities. "It helped
me to try to understand myself," she says. 

Growing up in Waterford, where her family was among the few
Jewish residents, heightened her awareness of being
different, she says. Studying the writings of philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche and anthropologist Joseph Campbell
inspired Zamek to find the relevance between ancient myths
and contemporary issues. 

In a recent piece, she combined her feelings about the
aftermath of 9/11 with the ancient Greek myth of Persephone,
who was abducted and taken to the underworld. "Our innocence
as a country has been taken away," she says. "A lot of
people are wondering what comes next." 

Other compelling pieces with a political message include an
homage to a Russian who was imprisoned in Siberia for his
human rights beliefs, a piece inspired by racial segregation
and a work that supports gay marriages. 

"I'm not making political art," says Zamek. "I'm an artist
responding to the politics that surrounds us."
 
July 22, 2004 

Visually impaired children experience Naval history

 by Max Uphaus
  NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER PUBLIC AFFAIRS 
 WASHINGTON (NNS) - The Washington Navy Yard's Navy
Museum offered an unconventional lesson in early naval
history to a group of blind or visually impaired children
from the
Washington area June 12. 

 The 33 children, together with their teachers and a similar
number  of high school volunteers, were participating in
Camp
Lighthouse, a two-week program of the non-profit
organization Columbia
Lighthouse for the Blind. 

"This is the highlight of their summer," said Kathryn
Courbe, CLB's  vice-president for Communications and
Development, of the
participants. "It gives them the opportunity to meet other
kids and  find 'I'm not unique.'" 
The group's tour of the museum was focused on what life was
like for a Sailor in the early 19th-century Navy. Karin
Hill, the
museum's assistant director of education and public
programs,  who conducted the tour, modified one of the
museum's
standard educational packages to minimize its visual element
and
heighten the tactile. The children were given objects to
touch and
handle from a Sailor's daily life - including clothing,
musical
instruments, a  hammock and a cat o' nine tails - to convey
a sense of how
these objects felt and what they were used for. 

"I had to re-think how I presented each object and explained
them to the kids without [the children]
 being able to see them," Hill said. "These kids were really
fun, because they really got into touching
  the objects, commenting on how warm, cool, or heavy they
were and on what they thought they were
 made out of." 
 The children were also led through the museum's replica of
a gun deck of USS Constitution, where,
 Hill said, "just by touching a cannon, they knew how large
and heavy it was and how tough it would
have been to be on a gun crew." 

 "It's always very gratifying to know that we can help our
students with special needs in a way that
really caters to how they learn," she added. 

The children were very excited and enthusiastic throughout
the tour, which brought home for many of
them how different their lives were from those of people in
the 1800s. 
"I learned that we don't have the same things as they did
200 years ago," said Samantha Chew, 9. 

When asked if she would have liked to live in the 19th
century, however, Samantha had no doubts.
"It would be too hard to be a Sailor then," she insisted. 


NASA Helps Bring Space And Science To Blind Students
 July 21, 2004 
 RELEASE : 04-234 

NASA Helps Bring Space And Science To Blind Students 

 NASA is making available its resources and facilities as
part of a program to provide the
first-ever science camp for blind middle- and high-school
students from all over the United
States. 

Created by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB),
Baltimore, the weeklong science camp
for middle school students began this week. A second
weeklong session for high school
students will take place in August. The camp will expose
students to the excitement of science
in real-life applications and career possibilities with the
Vision for Space Exploration.

The Vision calls for NASA to finish building the
International Space Station, develop a new
space vehicle to replace the Space Shuttle, return to the
Moon and eventually send astronauts
to Mars and worlds beyond.
"NASA's goal is to inspire the next generation of space
explorers and to encourage them to
follow the stars, regardless of their race, creed or
physical abilities. This experience will shatter
the myth that challenging sciences are too dangerous for
blind youth," said Dr. Adena Williams
Loston, Chief Education Officer, NASA Headquarters,
Washington. "The use of NASA facilities
and personal interaction with the agency's blind scientists
and engineers will allow these
students to build confidence in performing challenging
science activities from which they
generally are excluded in public schools," she said.

 Activities will include classroom projects that focus on
the connection between life and
ecosystems. Students will also visit NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and
other scientific organizations and museums in the Washington
area. During the second
session, students will develop, build and launch a 12-foot
rocket at NASA's Wallops Space
Flight Facility, Va 

 "Generations of blind youth have been discouraged from
pursuing scientific careers by
well-meaning parents and educators who falsely believed that
only the sighted could fully
appreciate the wonders of the universe and the extraordinary
diversity of life on this planet,"
said Marc Maurer, President of the NFB. "The NFB is
committed to breaking down artificial
barriers to knowledge by developing educational programs and
tactile teaching tools that will
ensure that no blind student is ever again denied the
opportunity to experience the full range of
scientific learning and pursue career dreams to their
fullest potential," he said.

NASA currently is adapting its educational materials for
blind students. One recent project is
the book "Touch the Universe: A NASA BraiIle Book of
Astronomy." The book features stunning
imagery taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Through
tactile illustrations of stars,
planets and heavenly bodies, blind students can touch the
universe and experience its beauty
for the first time. NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston is
also working on computer
software that will enable blind students to track the
progress of rocket launches through
sound.

The science camps are free and made possible by funding and
support from NASA; the NFB;
Lockheed Martin Foundation, Bethesda, Md.; Maryland Space
Grant Consortium Baltimore;
Southeast Regional Clearinghouse, Charleston, SC; and the
Maryland Science Center,
Baltimore.

For more information on NASA Educational programs, visit the
Internet: 

http://www.nasa.gov

Other related posts: