[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] art, games, theater

[Lisa Yayla]

Actors Who See With More Than Their Eyes
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” so dependent on sights misperceived and 
incongruous, makes a fascinating choice for Theater by the Blind, a 
company that blends actors who are blind and vision-impaired with those 
who have full sight. But perhaps the most delightful extra layer of 
meaning in the production at the Barrow Group Theater comes not from 
Shakespeare’s references to the eyes but from the presence of a 
wheelchair on the stage.
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/theater/reviews/06drea.html?scp=30&sq=&st=nyt


January 21, 2007
Works to Touch by Artists Who Can’t See
By JANE GORDON
Correction Appended

Hartford

THE new exhibition at the Conrad L. Mallett Art Gallery at Capitol 
Community College differs from other exhibitions in at least one 
respect: touching the art is allowed, even encouraged.

“We’re thinking of having the guards here say: ‘Yes! You can touch,’ ” 
said Pedro Valentin, the college’s art instructor and the exhibition’s 
curator.

But there is another difference: this exhibition showcases the work of 
several Connecticut artists who are blind. In particular, it displays 
the art of David Waite of Mansfield, who lost his sight over eight days 
in 1997 from a combination of diabetes and Graves’ disease.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/21ctblind.html?_r=1&sq=&st=nyt&oref=slogin&scp=31&pagewanted=print


A brush with art project
May 22 2008 by Hazel Ettienne, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

PARTIALLY-sighted and blind children and young people helped to create a 
colourful mural at Huddersfield Sports Centre.

Members of multi-sports group the Huddersfield Actionnaires – run by 
national charity Action for Blind People – got creative with recycled 
emulsion paint, brightening up a corridor between the climbing wall and 
the squash courts.

They were among many other sports centre users to attend a community art 
day organised by Huddersfield artists Dave and Emily Cowan, Carlos 
Flowerday and Jenny Parkin along with Kirklees Active Leisure.

The 30ft long display was created with unwanted paint from left-over 
home decorating and has been named The Butterfly Wall.

The Actionnaires, who meet on Saturdays at the sports centre, all have 
different levels of vision and set to work at painting in their own 
ways. Twelve-year-old Mehreen – a keen rock climber who has no sight at 
all – asked for red paint and then made her contribution by touch.

Ian Spencer, sports development officer for Action for Blind People, 
said: “The Actionnaires is all about enabling blind and 
partially-sighted young people to take part in new activities and this 
was a great opportunity to be involved in an exciting project that will 
leave a lasting display.”

The aim of the project, which started with the artists painting a pillar 
in totem pole colours, is to celebrate the sports centre in its final 
years and encourage users to think about what this important building 
means to them.

Seven-year-old Kamau McAllum from Fartown was joined by his mum, Jackie, 
who remembers the Queen visiting the sports centre.

She said: “It was a really sunny day and everyone in the flats and in 
the Inland Revenue building were looking down on events in the street 
below from their open windows.”
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/tm_headline=a-brush-with-art-project%26method=full%26objectid=20945942%26print_version=1%26siteid=86081-name_page.html

Toronto
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/428356
Women's Art Association Gallery (23 Prince Arthur Ave.): Works by 
visually impaired artist Judith Muir are on display Fri.-Sun.





Void explores world of blind climber John


A unique exhibition hosted by Derry's Void Gallery, Touchtone Test 
Piece, is an exploratory art project based on a local blind person's 
experiences of climbing.

Over the last fifteen years Dan Shipsides has developed an art practice 
which uses climbing to think creatively about the spaces around us - in 
particular landscape spaces and ideas about what landscape is or could be.

Over the last few years he's been taking John, a blind man from Derry, 
climbing regularly. This activity has been aimed at thinking how to 
capture or describe something of this landscape experience. One approach 
to achieve this was by attaching tiny micro cameras to John's fingers, 
backpack and feet in order to record "finger tip" footage of his 
climbing, footage which led directly to Dan Shipsides subsequent 
exploratory project - 'Echo Valley/A Guiding Dilemma'.

John said of his experiences: "I have no sight at all - so I didn't have 
any fear climbing – it probably helps not to have any idea of what 20 
metres looks like from above. As long as it feels safe I enjoy the 
climbing and I don't have any fear - it doesn't come into my mind. The 
only time I'm scared of heights is in my dreams."
The exhibition will run until June 20.
http://www.derryjournal.com/journal/Void-explores-world-of-blind.4104523.jp



‘Cape Folk’ features unique people and their art
And maybe, she says, it’s about people who have a folksy sense of being. 
People like Phyllis Sklar who makes jewelry and whimsical paintings. Or 
Janice Frishkopf who is legally blind, or, more accurately, living with 
extremely low vision, who manages to paint exquisite patterned canvases.

http://www.provincetownbanner.com/article/arts_article/_/58277/Arts/5/22/2008


New Video Game Tech Allows Visually Impaired vs. Sighted Player Competition

Advances in video game technology usually mean better graphics or new 
online gaming options, but a team at MIT has taken the Nintendo Wii's 
innovative three-dimensional controller and used it to create something 
completely new - a video game that visually impaired and sighted players 
can play together. AudiOdyssey is a music-based game similar to Guitar 
Hero that presents a level playing field to all players, whether they 
can see the screen or not. AudiOdyssey Night at your local bar can't be 
far behind.



AudiOdyssey was developed because an MIT grad student looked into games 
designed for the visually impaired, and found that all of them were 
designed solely for blind people to play. Sighted people couldn't play 
them successfully because they weren't as good at reading audio and 
tactile cues. That meant that a group of blind and sighted friends 
couldn't hang out together and play the same games.

Using the Wiimote (or just a computer keyboard), AudiOdyssey players 
build up audio tracks played by a DJ in the game's fictional nightclub. 
If they layer the tracks properly and create a good song, the club's 
patrons will fill the dance floor. The game is early in its development, 
and can be downloaded for free. A more advanced version is in the works.
http://io9.com/391915/new-video-game-tech-allows-visually-impaired-vs-sighted-player-competition




ScienceDaily (May 19, 2008) — A new computer game developed by MIT and 
Singaporean students makes it possible for visually impaired people to 
play the game on a level field with their sighted friends.


The game, called AudiOdyssey, simulates a deejay trying to build up a 
catchy tune and get people dancing. By swinging the remote-control 
device used by the Nintendo Wii, which senses motion, the player can set 
the rhythm and lay down one musical track after another, gradually 
building up a richer musical track.

Eitan Glinert, a graduate student in computer science at the 
Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab, says that the introduction of the Wii 
controller attracted many women and older players for the first time to 
the world of videogames. "Lots of people who had never played video 
games were now playing them all the time," he says. "I started to think, 
who's been left out? What groups are left behind even with all the new 
technology, these new systems?"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080515214926.htm

AudiOdyssey download
http://gambit.mit.edu/loadgame/audiodyssey.php



Winners Announced in Dimension 3D Printing Group's Extreme Redesign Contest

Bredemus, the high school category winner, submitted a Rubik’s Cube-like 
puzzle design that can be played by the blind as well as those who have 
sight. The puzzle is spherical, easy to grip and has sides made of 
triangles, pentagons and squares – shapes that can be felt as well as seen.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/winners-announced-in-dimension-3d-printing-groups-extreme-redesign-contest,402177.shtml


Inspired responses to good causes
Marion Phelps, 92, blind in one eye and a resident at Château Dollard, 
is beautiful inside and out, Wizenberg said. Her drawing of a barn will 
be on auction.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=5f60c1a5-79bc-4317-899f-f597156e91c0


Aristic achievers overcome the odds
May 20, 2008
MICHAEL ADRIAANSEN is 20 years old, blind, deaf, has cerebral palsy and, 
thanks to an award-winning program, has become an artist.

He is one of 30 disabled young adults who attend Lavender Cottage at 
Baulkham Hills, part of North-West Disability Services.

The program, called "access2arts", has opened the door to artistic 
self-expression for Michael and has won an award for Baulkham Hills 
Council in this year's Local Government cultural awards.

The success of the program culminated in an end-of-year exhibition to 
recognise the International Day of People with a Disability.

"Michael uses his whole body in his individual art works and they have 
such a unique quality that they are in demand," the co-ordinator at 
Lavender Cottage, Frances Farrugia, said. In one group abstract painting 
he used the wheels of his wheelchair to track red paint across the canvas
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/artistic-achievers-overcome-the-odds/2008/05/19/1211182703347.html


Artists transcend disabilities in exhibit


Last October a story ran in the New York Times about the remarkable 
transformation of people with various forms of mental disabilities when 
taken on a private guided tour of the Museum of Modern Art.

A retired police officer who had shown increasing signs of depression 
seemed to recover his old sense of humor and charm. A glum octogenarian 
in the middle stages of Alzheimer's disease suddenly became articulate 
and assured when asked to express his opinion on various modern 
masterpieces. A retired editor with short-term memory loss made a rare 
joke about her lapses, asking the group to stop her if they'd heard her 
story before.

And these changes didn't fade when the group left the museum, the story 
reported. Patients' moods were improved for hours and even days, while 
their symptoms diminished in a variety of ways and they had spates of 
unexpected expressiveness and insight.

No one really knows why art would have such a palpable, albeit (for now) 
temporary aid to cognitive abilities.

Educators have long touted the benefits of music on brain function. The 
Institute for Music and Neurologic Function in the Bronx has studied the 
phenomenon for 20 years. But no comparable work has been done in the 
visual arts. .......


Bramblitt, on the other hand, began to make art after he lost his sight 
to a rare visual disorder. While he had sketched and doodled all his 
life, he had never tried painting until he had become blind and turned 
to the medium in an act of angry defiance.

Interestingly, painting not only brought him a sense of peace, he 
discovered he had the ability to conceive and hold an entire painting in 
his memory, completing it by touch.

A self-taught artist, Bramblitt developed his technique using 
dimensional fabric paint to draw raised lines on the canvas that he can 
then follow once he begins to paint. Once the line drawing is complete, 
Bramblitt adds color with oil paints, feeling the canvas as he 
paints.....http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/19052359.html

A video on Bramblitt's working process is on view, together with a video 
interview of renowned pop artist Chuck Close, in the museum's Jerry and 
Patsy Shaw Video Box on the second floor, next to the entrance to the 
Haslinger Family Foundation Galleries.

The widely publicized watercolor Dare Me (2006) by Julie Cohn epitomizes 
the outlook of the multitalented artist who runs her own arts and 
entertainment company.
http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/19052359.html