[accessibleimage] Re: Using Braille in art work

I read with my left forefinger.

-- Jonnie Apple Seed
With his:
Hands-On Technolog(eye)s


On Jan 15, 2006, at 10:28 PM, Blackburn, Alan wrote:

Barry,

We "slant" lines of braille quite regularly in diagrams, our touch
readers don't have a problem with it, but a couple of tips.

* Works best with a reasonable number of cells ... ie the longer the
line (or word) the more easily recognisable as braille it is (over 3
cells I'd say), and the orientation of the braille from 180 degrees
(flat) is more obvious.

* Keep the bottom of the braille line facing the right side of the page
as much as possible, as most readers will read with their right hand; as
they do, their right arm describes an arc anchored on the right elbow
and they can naturally read upward along the braille; ie rotate the
braille through 180-90 degrees. It's really unnatural to have to move
your elbow to the left side of your body to touch read downwards when
the bottom of the braille faces left.

* Leave about 1/2 cm of blank space around the braille on all sides.

Sorry if this sounds confusing it's kinda hard to explain in print!! The
easiest way is to try it.
Alan





-----Original Message-----
From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kaizen
Program
Sent: Monday, 16 January 2006 1:26 AM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: bkleider@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Using Braille in art work

    Hi Barry,

Have you thought of surrounding the standard size and standard spaced
braille with fancy tactile borders, at a good enough distance so they
don't
interfere with the braille reading process, but close enough so they
can't
be avoided when touching? Have you thought about slanting different
lines of
braille at slightly different angles from the horizontal, to conform
with
the rest of the art piece, but not so much that the braille is clumsy to
read?

Just some ideas.

Best,

Sylvie


----- Original Message -----
From: "Barry Kleider" <bkleider@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 9:33 AM
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Using Braille in art work


Lisa, Judi, Chris, John, Alan (and all)

Thanks so much for all your thoughts and ideas about the ways adapted
Braille works for the sighted audience (and leaves the blind clueless.)

I especially got a chuckle out of the six-foot tall unreachable cells...

Our purpose is to create an art piece which gets both sighted people and
those with vision loss thinking about the world around them. About the
ordinary objects in our world. About WHY we can't find the car keys....

Words, street signs, signs on stores, ads in magazines, etc. TEXT is
everywhere. Even walking in the woods, you find trail signs (and feel
lost without them.) Because text is so ubiquitous, we stop being aware
of it - both its design and its function.

So, we want to incorporate text into the graphic image of the piece. We
want to do this in a way which gets people thinking about how letters
congeal into words, how words congeal into sentences, how sentences
congeal into ideas.

We plan to incorporate Braille because the whole piece is going to be
tactual.  We want the text to be functional. We want the Braille to be
functional also.  But we want to do it in a way that will also be
thought-provoking.

How to do that??? It's as much an artistic question as it is a technical
question about cell size and dot height.

Just as I want sighted people to have to stop a moment and be aware of
the written text (as both an object of information AND a visual design)
I want Braille users to have some fun with reading the Braille.

Ideas????

Barry










Lisa Yayla wrote:

Hi Barry,
You have really started an interesting discussion.
You have mentioned that it will be a cooperation between visual art
students and students from the school for the blind.
I graduated from a design school so I am guessing that your visual art
students will want to play around with the Braille. Some will think
about 
the legality of the Braille while others won't at that point. It's a
learning process.  What ever the result, it is a great way to inform
the 
general public, make them more aware.
I remember being told many years ago as a student by a visiting
illustrator who made books for the blind.  Before the illustrator
started
speaking I remember thinking that it sounded really interesting.
However
the illustrator soon burst my balloon of enthusiasm by saying to the
effect that illustrations for the blind should only be made up of very
simple forms eg people should be represented just as a circle.
Braille is a font and like any other font can be played around with.
The 
result is legibility or not, but then the purpose might  be to be
decorative.  Here the question then is does the Braille work  as a
decorative element or not, for a touch  reader and/or for a visual
reader.
This is also a question a graphic designer would ask about text he/she
is
playing around with in a design. The text might be there purely there
for 
decorative purposes.
The debate about function or form is a long one.
It is great that you will be working with art students, increasing
their 
awareness.
That's my 2 cents.
Best,
Lisa


accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx skriver:


G'day Barry,
This is a problem lots of sighted people (including me) have in
relation 
to getting into the "head-space" (finger-space?) of vision impaired
persons, especially concerning graphics.

If you need the braille to be functional, i.e. able to be read by a
touch reader you can't really mess with it as it becomes illegible (or
should that be untouchable!!) very quickly. Remember that the size and
spacing of braille has been optimised to be able to be read by a
finger
and not ones eyes.
There are devices in the braille codes that indicate different
type-faces (italic etc) and the code we now use here (UEB) can show
italic, underlined, and bold. However, the actual braille cell doesn't
change in orientation or dimension.

If you mean the braille for sighted persons you can do whatever you
like
but don't assume it will be touch readable. One of our art galleries
in
Canberra has braille that's about 6 feet high on the outside of the
building 6 feet in the air which gave us a bit of a giggle when we saw
it ... very useful!!!! I suppose it does advertise the fact to the
sighted that braille exists. Another good one was a request for 32
point
braille for an advertising flyer (real braille, not braille in
print!!)
Make the braille braille and the graphic a graphic I reckon <smile>
(unless you add an explanation to be read first, in proper braille, of
what all the funny dots are in the picture.)
Alan


-----Original Message-----
From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris
Hofstader
Sent: Friday, 6 January 2006 2:24 AM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Using Braille in art work

While I firmly support artistic freedom, I disagree on playing with
Braille
characters if you want to be understood by Braille readers.  Just
changing
the size makes one wonder if they are on the correct line of text or
if 
they
are combining two lines.  One of the reasons that refreshable Braille
displays are so expensive is the precision with which the holes must
be
drilled for the dots. Very strong Braille readers are the most likely
to
complain as they are looking for a certain feel and any notable change
to
that will slow them down rather profoundly.

This is why we invented "Vari-Braille" at Freedom Scientific. It lets
the
user specify in grams per square centimeter or pounds per square inch
how
"strong" they want their Braille dots. When we first introduced it, I
thought it was a marketing gimmick but later found that a lot of
people 
like
using it.  People who mostly read Braille on paper like a softer dot,
people
who grew up with refreshable displays prefer harder dots.  Go figure.

I've really come off as pretty cranky these past two days.  I'm sorry
for
that.  I am working on a grant proposal, an article for AccessWorld
and
a
book chapter all at once (at least my position paper for CHI 2006 is
done)
and I've been waking at 5:30 and writing pretty much non-stop all day.

So, if anyone will be at ATIA or CHI this year, please find me so I
can 
buy
you a cup of coffee.

Enjoy,
cdh
-----Original Message-----
From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Judi
Piscitello
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 10:00 AM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Using Braille in art work

Hi Barry!

What an exciting concept! And Braille Awareness Month is a great time
to send this concept into flight! On the conventional side of braille
art you'll find Marie Porter's Braillables - attached, if the list
accepts attachments. However, since art is by nature creative,
allowing 
abstract representations, I believe that you could be quite daring in
using "artistic license" with braille or any other tacile medium to
express whatever concepts you wish to share, including the use of
various size (and color) dots for braille, Moon Type
http://www.bsblind.co.uk/full/moon/moontype.htm, Boston Line Type,
New York Point, etc.  I say, "Celebrate braille and other tactile
expressive media, and go for it!"

- Judi Piscitello, TVI, COMS
Jpiscite@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Assistant, Training of Special Educators
NYS School for the Blind Outreach Department
2A Richmond Avenue
Batavia, NY 14020
(585) 343-5384 ext. 427
FAX (585) 343-0652
http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/nyssb/resource.htm
"The most important thing in this life is helping others to win, even
if that means slowing down and changing our own race." - Author
Unknown




bkleider@xxxxxxxxxx 01/05/06 9:19 AM >>>


Dear listers:

I'd like to start a discussion about Braille representation in art.

I understand that there are some strict conventions about the way the
Braille cells are represented in text books and public signage. I'm
wondering if anyone has experience using Braille in making art.

Specifically, I'm working with a group of blind, low-vision and
sighted

students. Our project is to create a tactual mural. The mural will
also 

contain text elements and Braille.

As part of this project, we've been looking at the ways text gets used

in commercial signage - the way letters get stylized for logos and
advertising. I'm wondering if this ever happens with Braille? Of
course,
we want the Braille cells to be readable.  The question I've been
asked

is, 'how much are we allowed to bend the rules in the service of
making 

art?' (For example, could we create a bold-faced or an italicized
Braille? Could we change the shape of the dots to create another sort
of
Braille font?) We'll also be doing this with our printed text.

The intent is to have fun with language and get people thinking about
the ways we communicate.

Like an art installation you would find at a museum, we will make a
sign
explaining the piece. I expect to create signage using regular Braille

describing what we've done and why.

Do you have any tips for us?

FYI, by spring, there will be three tactual public art pieces in
Minnesota, USA.

Barry Kleider,
Minneapolis, Minnesota




Lisa Yayla
Huseby Kompetansesenter
Oslo Norway
lisa.yayla@xxxxxxxxxx











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