lunar

For anyone that doesn't know, the topic is: The relevance of the art world to a blind audience and the success of the non visual specifically using Willem Boshoff's 'Blind Alphabet' as a point of reference.

I was fortunate enough that the work is currently being shown, so I organised for a group of willing blind participants to accompany me to 'see' the work and I conducted a brief interview with them about their experience of the work. I am still undecided as to whether I think Boshoff really created the work for a blind audience or if it was actually just a statement to the sighted..

Here is a paragraph :

As outlined by Paterson, Diderot wrote on the experiences of a blind man in the French town of Puiseaux, questioning the man whether he would be thrilled if he regained his sight, his response was the following

I would just as soon have long arms: it seems to me that my hands would tell me more about what happens on the moon than you can find out with your eyes and telescopes; and besides, eyes cease to see sooner than hands to touch I would be as well off if I perfected the organ I possess, as if I obtained the organ which I am deprived of. (Diderot 1016: 77)

Can art be appreciated through touch; do we know how to feel, as we know how to look? This quote from Diderot points to the elements of blindness in looking, where it is possible to look without thought. This metaphor asserts the act of touching and as a valid source for gaining knowledge. (Paterson 2007: 37)