[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Esref Armagon, John Kennedy Discovery Chanel, Audio guide, lawyer, artist

[Lisa Yayla]

Hi, Sending some links. One is a MUST!!!The Discovery Chanel program 
about Esref Armagan with Prof. John Kennedy. Excellent
Joan Erocel first told me that Discovery would be coming out with this 
program in November. Here it is on YouTube.
A definite must
http://thoughtware.tv/videos/show/1220
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3AgO6H0H98
------------
Scotsman.com (UK)
Saturday, November 10, 2007

Audio guide's picture for the blind

BLIND and visually-impaired people can get a special tour of the 
Scottish Parliament thanks to a pilot scheme.

Six visitors were given a unique tour round Holyrood by trained "audio 
describer" Bridget Stevens yesterday.

She described everything from materials used on the building to debating 
chamber equipment.

A spokesman said a decision on whether to make the tours permanent will 
be taken in the new year.

Last updated: 10-Nov-07 12:29 GMT


http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1785232007

----------Invitation to participate to the beta program of Mobile Daisy 
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-------------
Tools for an Unconventional Lawyer
excerpt

http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1198663505112
In their early days together, they took a road trip into the South, 
driving until they reached an island off the coast of Florida, framed 
with mangroves. There, he worked as a massage therapist and personal 
trainer for two years. Afterward, Meghan drove the two West as they 
headed out to UCLA for him to attend film school.

He graduated -- and even succeeded in a class on silent films -- but he 
was put off by the prospect of selling his work. So he put away his box 
of unpublished scripts, including one of his favorites: a tale of a 
grandfather and his blind grandson, a story spurred mostly by "wishful 
thinking," he said, and prepared for the LSAT.




article
Wisc. State Journal

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/263748
Artwork the visually impaired can see


December 24, 2007

Even as she completed her master 's of fine arts degree in 1980, Janis 
Nussbaum Senungetuk noticed her sight was dimming. Her speciality -- 
fine, detailed portraits -- eventually began to fatigue her eyes so much 
that she all but gave it up.

And then, color began to leave her.

"Blues and greens were very gray, " she says. "I lost yellow altogether. 
If there was yellow on a white page, I couldn 't see it. Other colors 
were fading, not into pastels but into gray. "

Doctor after doctor told Nussbaum Senungetuk she had cataracts on both 
eyes, but they weren 't ready to be removed. "And I said, But I 'm an 
artist, and color 's so important to me. ' They kept patting me on the 
head and saying, There 's nothing we can do about it. ' "

Finally, she met retinal specialist Dr. Barbara Blodi, who ordered 
surgery. Though she remains legally blind in her left eye, Nussbaum 
Senungetuk regained 20/25 vision in her right eye.

Just as important, color returned to her life.

"I wanted to have a parade up and down Washington Avenue and say, I can 
see color again ' " she recalls, "because it is so much a part of my life. "

Intense, bright, vivid color is what Nussbaum Senungetuk celebrates in 
"Bold Visions, " her exhibit of 14 photographs on display through Feb. 
28 at the Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Photographed with a digital camera in flower gardens and farmers ' 
markets across Madison, the images were manipulated by Nussbaum 
Senungetuk on her computer to aesthetically enhance them -- and also to 
make them more discernible to viewers with diminished sight.

In some cases, she 's replaced the garden behind a stunning lily with a 
black background, so the flower image virtually pops from the frame. In 
others, she 's manipulated the depth of field on her camera or 
intensified contrasts with her computer so that, to a viewer with full 
vision, the prints mimic beautifully rendered watercolors.

Nussbaum Senungetuk manipulates the photos on her computer using Adobe 
Photoshop software and prints them on 100-percent rag printmaking paper.

Originally, she started playing with Photoshop "to make (the photos) 
more accessible to me, because it helped me see the image more clearly, 
" she says. "It was only after it was pointed out to me that people who 
are visually impaired would enjoy this work because of that quality that 
I really started educating myself how to make it even more accessible. "

Working pixel by pixel "takes some patience, " says Nussbaum Senungetuk, 
61, a native of Kansas City who moved to Madison with her young daughter 
in 1981.

"But I 'm also interested in finding out how far I can push something. 
And very often I start out working in one medium, and end up with a 
mixed-media piece. I have always used some form of photography in my 
work. When I was painting, I would work very often from my photographs.

"In print-making, I went into photo etching and (screenprinting). The 
work that I 'm showing here is photo-based, but it is not straight 
photography, because I have altered the images to increase contrast and 
the color intensity. "

Nussbaum Senungetuk, who won the Madison Arts Commission 's 2007 
Signature Grant to put together the show, printed title cards for each 
photo in 18-point type and also posted title cards in Braille. For the 
visitor who wants to do a self-guided audio tour, she 's recorded a 
narrative tape.

A staffer at the Council made suggestions along the way. "When I was 
writing my catalog for the show, she told me what she would find 
important to know, " says Nussbaum Senungetuk. "It goes far beyond On 
your right there 's a butterfly. ' She wants to know more -- about the 
atmosphere of the work, the variety of colors, the variety of flowers. 
This is someone who 's never had sight.

"Someone who is blind from birth, who has not had the experience of 
direct knowledge of colors, isn 't mentally blocked, " says Nussbaum 
Senungetuk, whose own visual impairment is from diabetic retinopathy.

"They still have an idea of colors and shapes, and the more research 
that neuroscience has done, the more they have discovered that the 
vision is there. It may not totally correspond to a sighted person 's 
vision. But it 's not just a blank, empty space. "

One of the biggest surprises from "Bold Visions, " she says, has been 
the hugs.

"I 've had a woman hug me and say, I can see this after so many years of 
not being able to. ' And it brought back good memories for her. So that 
was wonderful, and great encouragement to continue. "

If you go

What: "Bold Visions, " a portfolio of floral images by Janis Nussbaum 
Senungetuk.

Where: Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired, 754 
Williamson St.

When: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays through Feb. 28.

Admission: Free. Framed and matted works for sale, $330- $375; a portion 
of the proceeds will benefit the Wisconsin Council of the Blind and 
Visually Impaired.

Information and tours: 255-1166 or www.wcblind.org