Beltane \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Garlic Moon<\/p>\n
Opening the doors of perception. \u00a0Thomas Huxley, I believe, on mescaline. \u00a0Now, I’ve done my share of mescaline, but there are other ways to fling open the doors. \u00a0I did one this morning.<\/p>\n
The MIA does tours for the blind called touch tours. \u00a0Training was this morning and I attended. \u00a0That means I put on those vaguely bluish\/purplish nitrile gloves (safer for the art than the old cotton gloves, I’m told.) and got to run my hands all over Theseus and the Centaur by Barye. \u00a0What a rush.<\/p>\n
Whenever kids come to the museum, the first thing we tell them is: \u00a0“The one \u00a0foot rule. \u00a0Look with your eyes, not with your hands.” \u00a0For one inclined to transgress to begin with, this license to touch was wonderful.<\/p>\n
I felt Theseus muscled legs, the Centaurs upper body curved back and his head held down by Theseus’ hand on his throat. \u00a0I felt the hooves of the Centaur digging in, stabilizing him during this fight. \u00a0The weapon that Theseus holds, ready to split the Centaur’s skull has a tension in it as it expresses an arc toward the Centaur’s head.<\/p>\n
It was a sensual delight to touch this bronze statue and I loved it.<\/p>\n
We also used tactile boards, basically simplifications of paintings using raised marks on a white board that depict the essential elements of the work. \u00a0The contact between the blind person and the art then becomes an exchange between the raised elements–in this case, the sun, the mountains, the olive trees and their shadows–in Vincent Van Gogh’s, Olive Grove and the docent’s description of the painting as a supplement.<\/p>\n
Then, last, we began to learn the art of verbal description. \u00a0In this case there is no prop, no statue, rather a work that the docent describes in as much detail as possible. \u00a0This requires a vocabulary of rich imagery and particular clarity.<\/p>\n
The doors of perception opened for me when I put on those gloves and touched, with my eyes closed, Barye’s statue and as I listened, eyes closed to the interaction between the tactile board and the painting itself.<\/p>\n
I got something, something unique and special, but it was very different from the experience I have visually. \u00a0Difficult to describe, but very different. \u00a0More a mental mapping of volume, space, a mind’s jigsaw puzzle to fit the information from statute or tactile board with the descriptions and help of the docent. \u00a0A new way of interacting with the art.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beltane \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Garlic Moon Opening the doors of perception. \u00a0Thomas Huxley, I believe, on mescaline. \u00a0Now, I’ve done my share of mescaline, but there are other ways to fling open the doors. … Continue reading The Doors of Perception<\/span>