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

The Sacks article is fascinating.  Until now I have only read his book
called "An Anthropologist On Mars."
Thanks, Lisa.

Sincerely,
Jimmie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lisa Yayla" <fnugg@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 1:45 AM
Subject: [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
>

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