Following on from my Site-Specific Sculpture reflecting on my communication isolation when I had no phone, internet or mobile signal I have been looking at various forms of Networks, Communications and Disruptions.
I have been researching other forms of communicating; smoke signals, drums, morse code, semaphore, pony express and braille. With braille in particular I wanted to see if I could try to understand it and what the individual raised areas meant and how this translated into another language. I found I could translate a message and then decided to look at how I could replicate this, I purposefully made it technically correct but over-sized to defamiliarise the method of reading. I also broke the short three word sentence into three lines, again to divorce it further from the traditional method of transcription, I also wanted to make it a piece alone to give it space.
Initial ideas as to the creation of the message and how to deliver it. Braille is delivered normally linear but I wanted to move it away from that format and make it more of a block, a tablet. It also started to disrupt the reading, which I wanted to do. I also wanted to make it larger than it would be, make the raised areas larger and prominent, this makes them visually obvious but would not necessarily be able to be read in the traditional way.
How the message 'Is this art?' is translated in Braille (Grade 1).
Uncontracted (grade 1) braille explained
Uncontracted (grade 1) braille translates each individual print letter, number or punctuation mark into a braille sign. It is great for basic labelling of objects like CDs or canned food in the cupboard. Who learns and uses uncontracted braille? Uncontracted braille is relatively easy to learn. Many learners start by studying the basic dot combinations for the letters of the alphabet, the main punctuation signs and the numbering system. (https://www.rnib.org.uk/braille-and-other-tactile-codes-portal-braille-codes/uncontracted-grade-1-braille-explained).
How I took the linear message and proportionally enlarged it into a block in preparation to make a negative (by turning the printed paper over) and marking in the clay before making indentations to the size I wanted to.
I made a clay slab, then created the message as a negative and took a plaster cast. At the moment it is just raw plaster, I may paint it although I am unsure of a colour. I may avoid white as it seems too obvious, it wouldn't normally matter what colour the message was with it being something for the visually impaired. Maybe I should research more what people with eyesight issues see, I don't want to assume.
I felt when I was revealing the cast that this was almost as if it was a slab of stone. It made me think of the stones that God apparently gave to Moses with the 10 Commandments on. I'm not religious at all, it just reminded me..
I wasn't sure of size to start with, this piece is about A3, with this medium I was limited to materials and weight but the idea of it becoming a lot bigger and almost monumental would be interesting. If I could do this I would potentially change the message to something relevant, this one I have made with the intention of it hanging on a wall. The message is 'Is this art?' I wanted to question the idea of taking something that is used as a vital way of communication for some but is unreadable by anyone without the knowledge of Braille. I was thinking that if this was in a gallery I may well provide an alphabet for people to translate but was also thinking of other methods of communicating message, ie with Morse Code and Semaphore, using different messages for each method of communication. Also how far I could abstract them from something readable but still understandable.
I have found out how some of the letters work and that every capital letter is proceeded with a character to indicate the capitalisation. However, reading with your fingers is another thing, we are all seeing it with our eyes.
In our Tutor Group this morning with Matthew we discussed some work by Gordon Matta-Clark and I have been looking at some of his work. That is certainly on the large scale!
The light has been so wonderful for the last few days that I couldn't help but photograph it and make the shadows part of the image. I wanted to replicate the sort of shape they would be scaled up but I am wondering whether to limit myself to that...
It would be interesting if this was a lot larger or maybe there were more and cast in bronze. (I know ambitious but an idea costs nothing). However, I think the message would need to change to make it relevant to the site and size. They could be quite pertinent.
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