Artist Exercises: Connecting Artist-Educators Across Geographies brings together artists and artist-educators from Asia and the Asian diaspora, and is premised on the creative manner in which artists mediate our experiences. The cohort for this series, formed through an Open Call, has made connections between AAA’s digital archival collections and their own situated contexts and educational environments. The connections range from speculative and personal to directly using archival materials as part of their workshop or programme. While these exercises were attempted with the artist-educator’s longstanding groups of learners in their own contexts, they can be applied in wider contexts and locations.

Anthony Miranti is the Head of Department of Media for the Faculty of Creative Industries at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. He has eight years’ experience crafting audio effects with student artists at the university, and twenty-three years’ experience as a father of a person with autism. These experiences have led to an interest in finding new ways to communicate and perceive emotion. His research explores how audio is used to provide emotional cues that may not have a direct quantitative equivalent. Additionally, he hopes to provide an inclusive platform where those with different capabilities can share their perceptions, and not simply be the recipients of the views of others.

Overview

This artist exercise explores how art access can be extended to PVI (persons with visual impairment) as part of a taught art engagement. Facilitated by Mr. Anthony Gandolfo Miranti, the principal artist-facilitator, this exercise stems from his own convictions as an artist living with children with special needs. Through a series of engagements, this artist exercise will think creatively about pedagogical formats that include wider audiences. It will provide an opportunity for art educators to introduce visual art to the visually impaired and beyond. The artwork will consist of a linocut block, corresponding print, and audio clips.

Objectives

Artist-Facilitators

1. To broaden the skillsets of student artists and increase art accessibility for PVI.
2. To increase cross-disciplinary engagement across the visual and performing arts.
3. To investigate ways of engaging in art-making for and with the PVI community.

Student Artists

1. Engage with artist facilitators to expand their creative boundaries.
2. Allow their artworks to reach a greater audience.

Keywords

Art for the Blind; Linocut Art; Art Education; Community Outreach; Art Access for PVI

Archival References

The first exercise draws on materials from the archive of Nilima Sheikh, and in particular, her use of stencils. They are used to guide the students through the processes of art-making and show how art allows for open-ended communication between the artist and the audience.

Samples used in Exercise 1:

Image: Stencil 33/43 from Stencils, Birds and Animals 1. Nilima Sheikh Archive.

EXERCISE 1: THINKING ABOUT ART and art access

How is the artistic process initiated and brought to fruition? This exercise explores understandings of art among art students by putting them in conversation with facilitators and PVI community members.

Duration

2 hours per session

Instructions

• Contact a PVI community member and invite them to share about their lived experience regarding access to the arts and their day-to-day life.
• The following questions can be used for discussion between the students, facilitators, and PVI community members:
  1. How do the visually impaired explore their surroundings?
  2. What have been your own experiences with visually impaired persons?
  3. What are some art media that you are familiar with?
  4. What kinds of shapes and textures work best for PVI when deciphering a relief image through touch?

Post-Activity Discussion Questions

1. How can artists help the visually impaired experience visual art?
2. Why is art access and exposure important?
3. What is your opinion on the current situation of art access for the visually impaired?

Notes for the Exercise

1. Teachers should have backgrounds in different disciplines across the visual and performing arts.
2. Teachers should facilitate the session by directing the learners on choice of subject matter and not only focus on skills-building.

Images from Previous Exercises

Further Resurces

Bartolome, J. D. I., L. C. Quero, J. Cho, and S. Jo. “Exploring Thermal Interaction for Visual Art Color Appreciation for the Visually Impaired People.” International Conference on Electronics, Information, and Communication (January 2020): 1-5.

Cho, J. D., J. Jeong, J. H. Kim, and H. Lee. “Sound Coding Color to Improve Artwork Appreciation by People with Visual Impairments.” Electronics 9, No. 11 (2020).

EXERCISE 2: making art

What are the typical understandings of art and experiences of making art for non-artists? How can this influence the choice of subject for the art encounter and affect the creation process? This session is designed to guide the students’ art-making in new media for PVI audiences.

Materials

• Physical Stimulus Resources
  1. Prepared sheets from a collection of tactile art stimuli—in the case of the original art exercise, we used stencils from the archive of Nilima Sheikh
  2. Bluetooth speakers for pre-listening to selected audio clips or recordings of sounds
• Materials
  1. Linocut tools
  2. Soft cut lino (A3 size is preferable)
  3. Ink roller or brayer
  4. Printing ink
  5. Smooth cartridge paper
  6. Tracing paper
  7. Pencils, pens, and rubber
  8. Printer paper (in the same dimensions as the soft cut lino)
•  Engagement Preparation
  1. Art Beyond Sight materials
  2. Suitable experiential materials like audio clips of ambient music, existing physical examples of linocut blocks, or examples from previous iterations of the programme

Duration

Four-to-six hours of in-person art lessons and ten-to-twelve hours of supervised artwork creation.

Instructions

• Introduce the purpose of the exercise and explain what the students will be creating for the exercise, which will include:
  1. The linocut artwork
  2. Music samples or sound bites to accompany the linocut artwork
  3. A short video explaining their choices of linocut design and sound
• Encourage students to share their ideas of what art is and what an artist does. The following questions can be used to stimulate the sharing process:
  1. What is art to you?
  2. Who is your favourite artist? Why do you like his/her artwork?
  3. What are your preferred art subjects and styles?
  4. Why do you like a particular painting or sketching style?
• The facilitator will share their journey of being an art industry professional and discuss their personal investment in this particular project:

1. Fine art teachers may share the following with students:

i. Techniques involving blade skills
ii. Different types of textures for linocut art

2. Music teachers may discuss the role of music in visual and artistic practice for the visually impaired.

• The principal facilitator will introduce methods of incorporating ABS (Art Beyond Sight) guidelines for students to work on producing audio explanations of their artwork (see Appendix 2 for the ABS Guidelines).
  
  
• Sketching and Linocut Preparation
  1. Start the students on their initial sketches of their preferred subject on tracing paper and art board—each facilitator should engage in active questioning with the learners on their choice of artwork and its potential to transfer to the linocut.
  2. Ask the students to reflect on the type of cuts to be done to enhance the tactile definition of the artwork against the lino board, to allow increased accessibility for PVI.
  3. Guide the students to correct mistakes in the lino cut or to adjust their technique.
  4. Prepare the paint materials. Students will paint their artwork using a colour of their own choice.
• Sound Priming and Audio Explanation
  1. The students can think about what sounds would help the visually impaired connect with the linocut work.
  2. Work with the students to create sound recordings either by using online resources or by sampling relevant sounds. Students can select sounds for their artwork.
• Continuing Activity
  1. Students will practise describing their chosen subject and interact with the community participants.
  2. Organise one-to-one consultations with the students to offer feedback on their progress.
  3. Prints may be produced from the linocuts as a potential secondary activity.

Post-Activity Discussion Questions

1. What emotions are you are trying to convey in your final artwork?
2. What you think about the use of linotype as a means to reach out to the visually impaired?
3. What sounds or music did you choose to provide another layer of interaction to your artwork? (You may indicate several.)
4. Which aspect of the process of art creation do you find most and/or least satisfying?
5. How useful is the facilitation process in helping you to understand your role in the exercise?

Samples From Previous Exercises

Further Resources

Cho, J. D. “Multi-Sensory Interaction for Blind and Visually Impaired People.” Electronics 10, No. 24, 2021.

Cho, J. D., L. C. Quero, J. I. Bartolome, D. W. Lee, U. Oh, and I. Lee. “Tactile Colour Pictogram to Improve Artwork Appreciation of People with Visual Impairments.” Color Research & Application 46, No. 1 (2021): 103–16.

Notes for the Teacher         

1. Too rough of a background surface will result in a “noisy” image difficult for PVI to differentiate between subject and background. Thus, when doing the linocuts, edgy cut marks should be removed as much as possible.
2. When choosing ink for the prints, higher contrast colours may help the partially sighted.
3. Larger linocuts allow more space for detail. A3/A4-size lino board is preferred.

EXERCISE 3: encountering art

In this exercise, PVI community members encounter the works created by the students and artist-facilitators. Responses to the works presented will be collected from both PVI members and students.

Duration

Two-to-three hours with one-to-two hours of setup time

Instructions

Art Encounter

• Student presenters will guide the community participants to physically experience their prepared artwork before playing the sounds.
• The following questions can be asked of the PVI community participants before playing the sounds:
  1. How can this artwork be improved so that you can draw more accurate meanings from it?

Post-Encounter

Collect responses from the PVI community and to improve the exercise for the future.

Post-Activity Discussion Questions

1. What are your reflections on how effective the exhibition interactions were for PVI?
2. What can be done better next time?
3. In your own words, explain what kind of positive impact this exhibition could have on its target audience.
4. Having interacted with the PVI community through this art encounter, share your personal take on their experiences with this multi-sensory experience.
5. In this exhibition, we use textures and sounds to transfer meaning to the audience. If you were to translate this experience to a non-visually impaired audience, what additional medium would you consider using that would allow the audience to engage as many senses as possible?

Encounter Set-Up from Previous Exercises

Image: PVI Community Respondents.

Example Responses for Post-Discussion Questions from Exercise 3

• What are your reflections on how effective the exhibition interactions were for PVI?
  1. “My most rewarding part was watching the moment of discovery, when what they were feeling tactilely would come together, and they formed the picture in their mind. The best was the eleven-year-old girl who was feeling the edges of the demigods fighting, and had figured out where their heads, legs, and arms were, but was still trying to place part of the drawing. Suddenly she gasped and exclaimed in Malay, ‘They have tails!’ Watching her figure out the mystery part was so rewarding.”
  2. “It was a smart move to approach the visually impaired people to indulge and simultaneously appreciate the authenticity of fine art. As an artist myself, it was a priceless involvement in this project and increased my empathy as a human being.”
• What can be done better next time?
  1. “A bigger access area would be wonderful with more quiet areas for engagement with the visually impaired.”
• How can artists bridge the inequality inherent in visual art so that the visually impaired may derive meaning from it?
  1. “I think the best way to bridge the gap is to find art forms that both the sighted and unsighted can create and interpret together. The linocuts were targeted to be a medium the visually impaired could work in to create their own pieces that were accessible to both the sighted and unsighted. The audio work is another, which can bypass the other sensory requirements, or work with them. Future workshops could include textured/shaped/sculpted media.”
  2. “The art display should improve on providing a clear statement by the artists themselves to bridge the gap between the art and the visitors who may have a different interpretation and eye judgment of the masterpiece. One way or another, the artist must explain his masterpiece to the public, but it is impossible to do that at long hours. Therefore, a printed art statement is important for the display to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation.”

Further Resources

https://all3dp.com/creating-tactile-artwork-blind-visually-impaired/

https://nfb.org/sites/default/files/images/nfb/
publications/bm/bm18/bm1810/bm181005.htm

Notes for the Teacher

1. Verbal description of what PVI are touching is important to their experience during the art encounter (e.g., “Your index finger is on the tail of the standing demon.”)
2. An organised flow of instructions directing visitors to engage with the artwork in order would streamline interaction between the exhibitors and visitors.

About the Author

Anthony Miranti is the Head of Department of Media for the Faculty of Creative Industries at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. He has eight years’ experience crafting audio effects with student artists at the university, and twenty-three years’ experience as a father of a person with autism. These experiences have led to an interest in finding new ways to communicate and perceive emotion. His research explores how audio is used to provide emotional cues that may not have a direct quantitative equivalent. Additionally, he hopes to provide an inclusive platform where those with different capabilities can share their perceptions, and not simply be the recipients of the views of others.

Anis Bin Che Mat (ACM) is an artist and lecturer currently based at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. He has exhibited at Urban Museum Bukit Bintang (2022). He has participated in art competitions such as Bakat Muda Sezaman (2020), Open Shah Alam, and Open Pulau Pinang. His practice is extensive, spanning mixed media sculpture, photo-realistic painting, and self-portraiture.

Maxwell Sim is the Head of Modern Languages for the Faculty of Creative Industries at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. Sim lectures on music appreciation, performance, and music composition for games. He is also an avid sketch artist and zentangle art hobbyist. He has over twenty years’ experience as a musician and music educator.

Publishing date: 12 January 2023 

The AAA Learning and Participation Programme is supported by the S. H. Ho Foundation Limited.