blindness and synesthesia

Terry Timely - photograph
http://www.territimely.com/art

I can't help but be fascinated by the experience of blindness. It is hard to comprehend that some people have no concept of what sight or color even is, when most of our lives revolve around this sense.

But unfortunately there is a sort of attitude of pity that is directed to those with the "condition", "handicap", or (worse) "disability" that is blindness. Pitying someone who does not experience life primarily through sight is a misunderstanding of the senses. For many who are blind, sound and touch provide a more hypersensitive experience of everyday life. And of course, many scientific studies have been done showing evidence that the loss of one sense heightens the others. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/health/29real.html?_r=0)

This exploration of the senses led me to "synesthesia"....
[n. the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.]

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHnnGHgeyC0

The ability to "taste" a color or "see" a sound might sound like some sort of drug reference, but the concept (and the video) challenge us to reevaluate our sight-dominated experience of the world. We can begin to question why we rely so heavily on sight. Does sight always represent truth? Is seeing really believing? As designers, we are aware that we have the ability to "create" images. In other words, a designed image projects a certain message to the world, but it is not always an objective or truthful message. The challenge is to rely less on sight and more on the multi-sensory experience.

The artist/director of the video, Terri Timely, has a website/blog in which an entire page is dedicated to weird photographs that make you look twice. They may appear to be mundane photographs at first glance, but force yourself to look twice and decide whether you accept that reality or not. Why would that particular photo have been taken? Sometimes, it might be just to make you aware of something you see every day but take for granted. http://www.territimely.com/art

Another cool article about "feeling sound": http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/06/03/feeling-sound

la mirada invisible

Pete Eckert

As I sit here eating pepitas at 3am, I happened to come across a post about an exhibit titled "THE INVISIBLE EYE: MEET MEXICO’S BLIND PHOTOGRAPHERS". Read it here. Basically, this guy called Gerardo Nigenda was "one of the early pioneers of the seeming oxymoron, 'blind photography'."He would never see the photos he took. In some of his work, he imprinted braille. Fifteen blind mexican photographers were featured in this show, about which Miguel Angel Herrera expressed his thoughts:

"Like [blind Cuban artist] Eladio Reyes has said, “The word ‘image’ doesn’t come from seeing, but from imagination.” Photographs taken by blind people enrich the medium because they involve other senses in the process: hearing, taste, touch, smell."

A hispanic website about digital photography also spoke about the photographers: "a pesar de sus problemas de visión son capaces de dejarnos atónitos y cuestionarnos si la ceguera del prejuicio es peor que la ocular." (Meaning...) In spite of their vision problems, [the photographers] are able to leave us amazed and questioning/reflecting on whether "the blindness of prejudice is worse than the sight [of the blind]". In so many cases, people are able to turn their disabilities into their strengths when really accept the challenge.

In Pete Eckert's photo above, the following question was raised by a hispanic blogger of digital photography:

Pero ¿qué ocurre cuando no podemos ver o hemos perdido el 80% de nuestra visión? Lo que ocurre es que esa visión fotográfica es más intuitiva.

What happens when we cannot see or have lost 80% of our vision? What results is a more intuitive photographic vision. (The writer also explains that Eckert paints with light what he sees in his mind.) The effect is an image pulsating with energy and organic forms, but at the same time these photographs conjure images of a fire or burning men.

Photo by: Gerardo Nigenda. 

In many of his photos, Nigenda captures himself touching the subject, endearingly making the viewer aware of the camera-subject relationship. Braille is imprinted in many of his images.

blind saving the blind

Jim Sherman and Annie Smith had enjoyed the news and Everybody Loves Raymond together the evening of March 27 when Sherman decided it was time to turn in. Bidding his neighbor good night, Sherman, blind since birth, used his cane and Smith's fence to find his way back from her house to his RV next door in Conroe, Texas. 

Once in bed, Sherman, 55, turned on the baby monitor that Smith's daughter Debbie—a nurse who worked nights—had bought for both their homes so Sherman could keep an ear out for Smith, 85, who is legally blind and has Alzheimer's disease. Shortly after 10 p.m., Sherman started to hear odd noises over the monitor and then Annie's frantic voice: "Jim, the house is on fire!" 

Sherman sprang into action. "I knew if I were to wait," he recalls, "it might be too late." He made his way to Smith's front door, left open for her dogs. "I could smell smoke," he says. "I asked 'Where are you?' She shouted, 'I'm over here at the back.'" Following the sound of Annie's voice, Sherman found her near the bathroom. Taking her hands, he led her out of the house. "You could hear roaring and crackling," Sherman recalls. "It was like an oven." 

The fire, started by a faulty electrical connection, gutted the house and killed Annie's cat and three kittens. But mother and daughter realize that, if not for Sherman, the outcome could have been much worse. "There is no way I can express my gratitude—it's too enormous," Debbie says. Adds Annie: "He couldn't see, but he went into that burning house and got me out." 

***

I found this blog, the burning house. It's kind of a lighthearted approach to a terrible situation, but it is a way for people to think about what is important to them. http://theburninghouse.com/

end of story

Vukub Caquix and the Tree of Life

Completed talisman necklace and stand

 

Explanation of the pendants

Using an awl and a hammer, I laid my designs over the aluminum sheet and tapped each mark one by one so that the design was embossed on the other side. I then cut out the surrounding shape with a jewelry saw and drilled holes for the chain links. 

 

Top -- a representation of Vukub-Caquix himself. Him form resembles that of a macaw. His name, meaning "Seven times the color of fire," was given to him because of his brilliant, silvery eyes, which I placed on the top left and right of this pendant.

 

Middle -- the source of Vukub-Caquix's downfall. These two Mayan heiroglyphs represent the moon and sun, respectively. Vukub-Caquix believed he was so important and brilliant that his very existence made the sun and moon redundant. His arrogance is what ultimatley led to his death.

 

Bottom -- reads "Chalam," the mayan word for "jawbone." One day, when he goes to his nance tree to pick fruit to eat, his enemies shoot him with a blow pipe from afar. The wound to the jaw severely weakened him and led to his death. Although Vukub-Caquix is not human, it might be significant to remember that the muscles in the jaw are some of the strongest in the entire human body. A severe wound to the jaw might symbolize taking someone's strength and power from him or her. This story acts as a warning to anyone who isn't careful about letting excessive pride overcome them...

 

The stand -- represents both the nance tree from which Vukub Caquix picked his yellow fruit and also the Mayan tree of life, which contains representations of a constellation (Big dipper), a galaxy (Milky Way), the moon (eclipse), and an offering to the gods. The top of the tree of life is the depiction of the constellation, but it is also actually Vukub Caquix (Seven-Macaw) himself.

 

More Process...

First, I developed the designs for the wood panel and pendants. The design for the tree is in my previous post, done in illustrator using the pen tool. I used mayan images for reference but did not trace any existing forms - this design is my creation, inspired by the mayan forms. I wanted the pendants to narrate the symbols of the story, as explained above. I began by drawing some potential designs; I then scanned my drawings and live traced them in illustrator so that I could scale them up and down easily. Here are the illustrator images:

Using the scroll saw, I cut out the design of the tree of life. Sanding it by hand is what took more time, really... I then spray painted the form black:

 

The actual talisman/necklace required aluminum sheet metal, some 4/0 blades for the jewelry saw (so tiny!!), 36 inches of stainless steel chain, chain links, and a clasp/closure. For all these needs Metalliferous and Brooklyn Charm were most helpful. There are just countless necklace charms you never knew you needed there... it's dangerous. Needlenose pliers definitely make the list of essentials.

 

This project was a great way for me to explore jewelry-making. It was definitely one of those projects whose success was dependent on the amount of focus and concentration. So satisfying in the end!