Art Installation "Braille" by artist Dimitris Kapetanou
The use of system braille are rendered blind themselves, while those who are literate in braille are able to comprehend the meaning of every sign, from start to finish, navigating the whole exhibition with ease. This process is assisted by the self-adhesive signs that have been placed on the floor and that will ease the process of navigating the exhibition with a steady flow. The texts’ content comprises personal interviews about colors.
Cross-border/international
Greece
Greece
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City of Athens (Greece)
Municipality of Athens (Greece)
National Federation of the Blind (Athens, Greece)
City of Florina (Greece)
Municipality of Florina (Greece)
Collective of Blind - Visually Impaired People of Western Macedonia
Antiquities Authority of Florina
6th Art Thessaloniki (Mataroa Awards)
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
The use of system braille are rendered blind themselves, while those who are literate in braille are able to comprehend the meaning of every sign, from start to finish, navigating the whole exhibition with ease (a complete reversal of the concept of vision as we know it is achieved). This process is assisted by the self-adhesive signs that have been placed on the floor and that will ease the process of navigating the exhibition with a steady flow.
The texts’ content comprises personal interviews of, centrally or peripherally, visually impaired people, who can only distinguish between lights and shadows, as well as interviews of people who are congenitally blind. Furthermore, the art project utilizes qualitative social research through the ‘case study’ method, since in addition to the interviewees' level of vision, criteria such as gender and age were essential in reflecting a broader and more diverse spectrum. In these interviews, although broader issues were raised, I focused mostly on specific aspects pertaining to the way blind or visually impaired people perceive colours. Namely, the way they see, remember, and imagine the things they have heard of and discussed about within their immediate environment, as well as their initial spontaneous thoughts and feelings upon hearing a colour’s name [it is worth noting that the colour purple was not defined by any interviewee]. Through this project, my intention was to provide the impetus for these people to express their unadorned truth without my personal interference. In this way and by being shown glimpses of empathy, they were given the opportunity to position themselves as an equal part of society, in the fields pertaining to colour and visual arts as a whole.
Braille
Blind
Art
Accessibility
Inclusion
The main goal of the visual work is the development of empathy and inclusion. This is achieved by the braille boards and the construction of matching blind striping on the floor for the use of white rattan to ensure flow to the exhibits. This work is easily placed in the given space and its concern is the representation of a minority group for the first time on equal terms.
The interviews of my project "braille" were transcribed and codified on paper using a specialised braille typewriter, and the production of the final piece on aluminium followed. This material was chosen due to its ability to retain the surface stable and avoid any distortion due to haptic studying and reading. The complete installation has been structured and positioned in a way that it is legible and convenient for visually impaired people, and it consists of twelve distinct aluminium surfaces. Each individual panel contains three separate paragraphs, according to the interviewees’ level of vision. Hence, the guiding principle for the project’s curation was its full functionality, which was often also a guide at both a logistical and an organisational level, enhancing its foundation, while also enabling its conceptual dimension through semiotic codes and symbolic systems.
The aim of this visual project was to give the leading role to the visually impaired and the blind from birth who know the braille system so that they can become narrators and tour guides for the rest who do not know this system. Also, since the content of the interviews is about how these people see colors, we can for the first time learn some of their thoughts on this issue as well as the way of life in their everyday life. The installation works on the axis of empathy and inclusion, since even a person with a white cane can walk around the exhibition of the work with ease thanks to the blind guide placed on the floor.
The viewers of the work, as it was seen from the presentation of the installation in the places where it has been exhibited, managed for the first time to put themselves in the position of blind people when they are in an exhibition space, a gallery, a museum, and cannot perceive the content of works on the walls and even paintings related to color. In addition, through the interviews included in the paintings, they manage to get a first insight into the way blind people imagine colors.
Every time this visual installation is presented, I choose to collaborate either with the National Federation of the Blind, or with the associations of the blind - visually impaired. In this way, the respective people are informed so that they can visit the space, and that the visual work works completely. This happens because it does not simply impress and surprise those who do not know the braille code, but gives the opportunity to blind people to become our guides, when the rest of us are activated by touch and sight but do not understand the content of the interview texts about the color found in the paintings. In addition, I make sure that it is presented in public museums that have wheelchair access and the work has also been printed in book form so that blind and disabled people can read the content of the signs since it would not be possible otherwise to stand up and read the inscriptions . Finally, I am informing the respective municipalities so that it takes on a dimension in the state as well, as long as the visual work conveys educational messages and is of social content.
The institution I turned to to learn the braille system but also to meet people who were willing to give the interviews, was the Center for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind in Thessaloniki. Thanks to the people of this organization, I was able to put my reasoning into practice, and to learn through life and in practice how these people live, how they are in their daily lives and how their opinions complete the way of implementing and installing the project so that it is functional as many groups as possible.
Τhe originality of this project has to do with two pillars that make it up. On the one hand, because blind people are given the opportunity to learn how they see or imagine colors, and on the other hand, because blind people guide us and explain the content of the paintings to us. Something like this has not happened either in Greece or abroad, both individually and in combination.
The positive fact about this visual project is that after the initial tour and the surprise of those who do not know the braille system, there is the possibility for the visitor to understand the contents of the paintings through forms of transcribed interviews and qr codes found in the space. During the first presentations of the project, there have also been guided tours to schools and groups of disabled people to learn more about the braille code but also the lives of our blind people and the use of braille typewriters.
Through local presentations, I realize that the reactions of visitors who do not know the braille system, regardless of the country, will be the same. That is, the sighted will stand awkwardly in the space, while the blind will have the leading role of narrator. As part of the local process, these interviewers could proceed to read the signs and explain them even through accompanying video or printed material.
