Tactile Art Teach-in - Application
March 23-25, 2023
In person at the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library
New York, NY 10011
Teaching Team: Ann Cunningham, Chancey Fleet, Danielle Montour, Lauren Race, Minh Ha, Marco Salsiccia, Ka Li
A lot of information follows: please read it carefully, and reach out if you have questions by emailing Chanceyfleet@nypl.org or calling (347) 632-8383.
No prior experience is required, and all supplies you'll need will be provided.
We're excited to welcome participants as well as volunteers. If you choose to apply as a volunteer, you'll be invited to a Zoom orientation before the teach-in begins. Volunteers, depending on their experience, can help with logistical support, hands-on activities and prep work.
All sessions will run from 9:15 AM to 5 PM. On Thursday March 23 and Friday the 24th, we'll focus on tactile drawing techniques. Participants will explore using the Sensational Blackboard, a versatile tool for drawing a raised line using regular paper and pens. We'll cover core concepts including line quality, effective practices for tactile drawing and legibility, point of perception, proportion, overlap and obscuration, perspective, drawing with emotion, and more. Participants can also choose from breakout sessions focusing on map exploration, embroidery, coloring pages and Lego build diagrams.
On Saturday March 25, we'll shift our focus to exploring tactile art and graphics with accessible and collaborative digital workflows. We'll begin with an overview of tactile graphic creation processes (including embossing, swellform, thermoform, 3D printing, cutting machine and embroidery machine) along with their pros and cons. From there, we'll highlight ways to find existing tactile graphics and images online, methods for preparing images to work well as tactile media, and ways to bring your ideas to life in digital form. Participants will learn about collaborative workflows for Blind and sighted designers working together, as well as options for Blind designers working alone. We'll demo collaborative work with mainstream CAD programs, the accessible TactileView program, and hand-coding images with SVG. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop for our digital day, although the library also has laptops to loan.
On Sunday March 26, participants may choose to join up with the group for accessible museum tours (destinations to be announced later).
Thank you for applying! You'll hear back from us within a week of your submission.
