[accessibleimage] my reflections on the "Touching Art" exhibit in Seattle, Washington, USA

Greetings all,

I visited the "Touching Art" exhibit at the University of Washington's Jacob
Lawrence Gallery  on Tuesday, June 28. I went with my partner Robby Barnes
and two immigrants who are studying English with us. All four of us have
vision limitations. We all appreciated the accessibility of the exhibit.

Before describing our impressions, I want to tell you a few things about
each of our backgrounds. I think that by knowing a little about what each of
us brought to the exhibit, you will be better able to understand how each of
us experienced it.  It will also give those new to the field of tactile art
a fuller idea of the range of the audience of blind and visually impaired
people. Artists who want to create art that is accessible to people who are
blind or have low vision need to understand that they are addressing a very
diverse audience. And, even when people are interested, not everyone finds
it easy or enjoyable to become oriented to tactile graphics and tactile art.
It requires an environment where some people are not discouraging others
from touching, or laughing at those who touch the art. It also requires some
guided learning, acquired skills and accumulated experience. In addition, it
is relevant to keep in mind that, just like some fully sighted people are
less able to distinguish meaningful detail and nuances than others,  even
with a lot of help,  some people (visually-impaired or fully sighted) find
it harder than others to interpret what they touch and to integrate their
direct tactile experiences with what they can experience through other
possible senses in the context of the larger spatial environment. All of
these factors are definitely relevant to how much different people enjoy
various kinds of arts.

I was born with full vision, and experienced slowly deteriorating vision
until I lost all sight at 39. I am now totally blind. I have always been
very interested in creative arts and crafts of all sorts and I have drawn,
painted, sewed, sculpted in clay, played music, etc. I am lucky to have good
visualizing capacities. I have always been able to visualize how raw
materials will look and feel when they are  made into whatever I want to do
with them. And, since losing vision, I am always creating pictures in my
mind that I have to remind myself are not based on any visual experience
even though they seem to be so clear to me. So, you won't be surprised to
know that I have always loved to visit museums and art exhibits, and I still
do although the experience can sometimes be a bit frustrating now that I am
totally blind.  I also really appreciate tactile graphics and multi-sensory
art of all sorts, at least in part because they are so accessible to me.

My partner Robby has been partially sighted all his life, which in his case
means  he can see the full range of colors, as well as a lot of detail,
sometimes with the help of some magnification device and sometimes without
any help of this sort. He has also always been very interested in the
creative arts.  He has always enjoyed drawing, constructing  things and
playing music, as well as enjoying what others create. He studied both
creative art techniques and art history in college and received his BA in
fine arts. So, I find him a great companion to have at a museum or art show,
since he enjoys being there, is knowledgeable, and he is someone who is
enthusiastic about sharing his visual experiences.

One of the students who went with us is a middle-age man from Africa. He has
had very poor vision all of his life due to glaucoma. He can see colors and
large shapes fairly well, but not thin lines or much detail. He has also
been very interested in the arts all of his life, and has played music, but
he has not done any drawing, painting or sculpting. He has a particular
interest in and knowledge of both traditional and modern African arts. This
man is very interested in learning more about the arts of North America. But
he has often found trips to museums and art shows here generally
frustrating, both because there are many things he can't see or touch, and
because he has usually been dependent on friends and family members to
describe things that they may also find unfamiliar and even confusing. Since
he is in the process of learning English, and is not fully proficient in
English yet, museum and art gallery tour guides usually are still difficult
for him to understand, even when they are willing to describe the details he
can't see.

The other student is a young woman from a rural village in Latin America.
She was born fully sighted, lost vision in her early teens and is now
totally blind. Her main exposure to the arts was to the arts and crafts of
her rural village. She is very interested in learning about tactile arts
because she passionately wants to learn how to recapture her capacity to
make things with her hands, which she and her family thought she had lost
forever when she lost her vision.

When the four of us got to the art exhibit at about 2:15 p.m. there were
four or five other visitors, but they all soon left, so we had the place to
ourselves, except for one person who was tending the exhibit.

Both students were a little shy about touching the objects at first. They
are so used to being discouraged from touching things in public places, and
they don't want to seem weird either.  So Robby and I began by touching,
remarking and encouraging touching. Then, the students really got into it as
we progressed from one creation to another. I think this was helped by the
absence of sighted strangers who might have commented on what we were doing,
or attempted to intervene to assist us. The one person who was there tending
the exhibit thankfully didn't say a word.

There were more than a dozen pieces, as the article I previously posted
said, but I don't know precisely how many because I didn't think to count
them. Most of the pieces were mounted on the peripheral walls, so we were
able to move from one to the other by following the walls. There were three
mounted on a dividing wall in the middle of the gallery. We almost missed
them, but when we had finished touching and looking at the pieces on the
peripheral walls, Robby noticed that there were three more pieces on the
dividing wall in the middle. If I had not been with a person who had some
vision, I might have passed them by.

The lighting was soft and bright, and the pieces were evenly illuminated,
which was very helpful for Robby and the man from Africa, both of whom have
some vision.

There were braille and large print signs next to each piece, telling the
name of the artist, the title of the piece, and what it was made of.

Both of our students are currently braille users as am I. Robby reads print.

I want to discuss the braille signs a bit because how they are produced has
special significance for new English learners who are blind. For those of
you who are not familiar with the technicalities of American English
braille, I need to explain here that  it can be written simply using the
alphabet and punctuation signs, or with special contraction signs similar to
shorthand (which are for the purpose of saving space). When American English
braille is written with the special contraction signs we call it contracted
braille. When only the alphabet and punctuation signs are used we call it
uncontracted braille. The braille in the signs next to each piece was
contracted braille. This is the usual practice when public signs are
prepared since the vast majority of proficient braille users in the U.S. are
most comfortable with contracted braille because that is what they have
become used to.

But, the contracted braille was a bit challenging for the young woman from
Latin America who is both a new English learner and a new braille learner.
Many people, even proficient English speakers who were highly literate using
print before losing vision, can take only a few weeks to learn the basic
braille alphabet. But they may take a year or two to become moderately
comfortable with contracted braille, even when they are strongly motivated
to learn it right away. I don't encourage new English learners to learn
contracted braille until they have some grasp of writing and reading in
English, especially spellings. When the United Nations published its UNESCO
English language newsletter in braille, they produced it in uncontracted
braille so as to make it optimally accessible to people reading the English
braille from all over the world. Also, the majority of people who are blind
or have low vision have lost vision in middle age or later life, and often
indicate that they are discouraged from fully getting into braille literacy
because they feel overwhelmed by the braille contractions.

So, when considering providing braille signs, it is a good idea to think
about who you are hoping will read those signs.

The large print type was about 20 point type size, which made it easy for
Robby to see without any magnification device. Many people with low vision
who I know find this size quite useable, if they can get close to it. These
signs were very easy to get close to. The print was black on white with good
contrast, which was also helpful.

Other than the braille and large print brief descriptions on the walls
giving the names of the artists, the title of the pieces, and what they were
made of,  there were no other details provided. All four of us wished there
had been more information about the artists and more information about what
they had in mind in making each piece.

We were also disappointed to find that there was no catalog or even a flyer
in braille or large print, or in standard size print, that we could take
home, listing the artists and their pieces, describing each artist's
background and what each of them had in mind when they made their pieces,
and putting the pieces into the context of the artistic traditions they were
part of.  When we asked, we were told that all that was available was the
newspaper article we already had. A catalog and/or flyer can help visitors
to remember and reflect on what they have experienced, educate them about
the specific kinds of art being shown, and provide focus on the artists and
their creations. I always consider such material to be an integral part of
an art show and was disappointed that there was nothing of the sort at this
one.

There was a variety of free print literature about the services offered by
the Washington State Department of Services for the Blind and the Lighthouse
for the Blind, as well as plastic cards printed in such a way as to provide
simulations of various vision impairments, and free videos and CDs on
services for the blind.

I wish there had been literature relating directly to blind people's
participation in the arts.  When I asked, the attendant said there was none
there.

The pieces in this show were generally well done and should be thought of as
artistic creations, not just examples of things that blind people can
appreciate. They ranged from semi-realistic or figurative to semi-abstract
and completely abstract. Some depicted human or animal figures, and some
depicted flowers in realistic or semi-realistic ways.  Some employed many
bright colors, a few were only two colors, and a few were only one color
(either white or black).

Some of the pieces were five or six feet wide and a few of them were more
than six feet above the floor. Their size made it a little difficult to get
a complete idea of their overall shapes simply by touch while standing in
one place. This was really only a challenge for those of us who were totally
blind. The height was also a bit of a problem for me and the woman from
Latin America, because I am 5 feet tall and she is 4 feet and 6 inches. We
both had difficulty exploring the higher parts of pieces, and she had more
difficulty than I did. Since both of us are totally blind, this meant that
the higher parts of those pieces were not really accessible to us.

I was happy to find that some of the pieces had elements that could only be
appreciated by touching them. One was the abstract piece titled "Sporadic"
by Chad Downard, which consisted of long black polyester-stuffed Lycra rolls
with a sprinkling of shocking pink soft balls squeezed in between. By
touching, we found smaller pink balls hidden behind the ones that could be
seen by eye. And, the piece titled "Hive" by Ben Hirschkoff also provided
more than met the eye. The four-foot-wide bright yellow and orange honeycomb
or beehive-shaped piece had twelve small round holes with screens covering
them. Touching the smooth surface with periodic grooves that constituted
most of the piece and then coming upon the holes with the screens, we were
mildly startled as we felt the vibration of the electric motors and spinning
little fans that were hidden behind them. This gave us a slightly unnerving
tactile experience similar to accidentally coming across a bee while picking
flowers or berries. While everyone could hear the little fans as they
periodically turned on and off, and those who had useable vision could see
the round holes, people who did not touch this piece could not have the full
emotional experience it held.

The young woman from Latin America is not familiar with modern art, so she
was a bit puzzled by the abstract pieces. Both students found it more
difficult to understand pieces that depicted things they are not generally
already familiar with. In addition, neither of them could easily identify
the honeycomb pattern in the piece titled "Hive" because of the confusing
aspect of the overall rectangular shape and because of the large size of the
piece. Even though both students are familiar with bees, the woman from
Latin America did not understand the English word for "bee" or "hive," and
the man from Africa was only able to understand it after some explanation.
There was a piece called "lapel" which had a giant flower pinned to a giant
corduroy lapel that was something like six feet tall. Both students
recognized the flower by touch, and the man from Africa could recognize it
by sight too, but neither could figure out the lapel. The man from Africa is
quite familiar with jackets with lapels of the sort depicted, and can see
large shapes, but couldn't orient himself to this lapel, even after being
told what it was. The woman from Latin America is not familiar with jackets
with such lapels, and was truly confused by it, even after tracing the
outline a number of times with her hands and repeatedly feeling every part
of the surface that she could reach.  Two other pieces titled "Daisy chain"
(1 and 2) were difficult for the students to recognize as schematic versions
of daisies. This was probably made more difficult by both of their lack of
familiarity with daisy chains as such. And, neither of them are yet familiar
with the metaphoric or idiomatic significance of the English term. Here
again, some information about the thoughts of the artist could have helped
them understand more.

Robby and I were both able to recognize and appreciate the "Hive" and the
"lapel," although it was more difficult for me, and really only fully came
together when I read the names of those works. The "daisy chain" (1 and 2)
were easy for Robby to understand because he could take their general shapes
and colors in with his eyes, but, even after reading the names of the
pieces, I found it a bit difficult, although I was able to appreciate that
the embroidery on them was quite beautifully done.

Both students and I  needed verbal and written information to help us
interpret most of the pieces, except for the heads. The 16 heads that make
up the piece titled "Déja Vu" by Susie Lee were especially interesting to
us. All of us were able to note by touch the differences in facial features,
the different directions in which they were facing, and the duplicate faces.
The two people who had some vision were aware of the lack of color or visual
details, such as details for eyes, hair or eyebrows. The two of us who are
totally blind were also aware of the lack of detail in the heads, including
no details for the eyes, hair or eyebrows, even though the lack of color
wasn't important to us until we were told about it.

After we finished touching and looking at everything, we went to the
literature table to check out  what they had. As Robby was telling us what
he saw on the table, a large crowd of people of all ages came in. We
lingered a bit to observe their reactions. Robby said that none of them
appeared to be blind although some of them might have had low vision, and
most of them were doing very little touching as they moved from one piece to
another.

I hope that we can have future art shows that emphasize the value for
everyone! of experiencing art through multiple senses--and encouraging
everyone to touch more--it isn't just for blind people.

Sylvie Kashdan

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