Xinran Shen: Midterm Portfolio – #2 Tactile Graphics

Project Description: 

For this project, instead of choosing a 2D image to render through tactile graphics, I tend to express something unexplainable and untouchable, which is a nostalgic feeling about a past mindset. This was inspired by my experience recently re-reading some past writings and journals. I saw a diary entry of mine back in high school during covid lockdown, in which I wrote “I wish I could lie on the grass with my friend and feel nature”. I also found another entry written in middle school, about the sakura tree next to our house and its beautiful blooming season. Looking back at it from the somewhat childish perspective that the lockdown is over, I still find these thoughts so relevant, especially because I still find myself trapped in everyday mundane life and yearning for time to be with nature. Meanwhile, I also feel nostalgic about my thoughts in the past, which were very pure and genuine, and these indescribable elements touched me a lot.

Documentation:

Visual Description:

This piece is structured on a square-shaped white background board (half the size of a 15-inch laptop), rotated 45 degrees. The blue yarn is glued at the bottom part (4:00 – 6:00 directions), and a chunk of green yarn is glued at the 7:00 direction. More light blue yarn is glued from the 8:00 – 9:00 direction, and 10:00 – 11:00 direction). 2 small fragments of yellow wrapping paper are glued in the center of the piece, with bulky pink yarn tips glued on each of them. Below the yellow wrapping paper parts glued 4-5 strips of blue-white yarn. Scatter on the whiteboard are pink fragments of the mask cloth.

To interact with this piece, please start by touching the bottom, imagining they are the soft grass. Moving upwards, you will feel the strips of yarn hanged on 2 individual parts of wrapping paper (feeling a bit stiffer than the soft yarn), that’s me and my friend lying on the grass. Flower petals are scattered around us in the form of mask cloth, and the other yarns around us are soft and carefree clouds.

Reflection questions:

To express the theme of nostalgia about longing for freedom, tenderness, and a bit of pure childishness, I wanted to create a children’s painting-like aesthetics. Because of the modality of tactile art, I can choose materials that are not only tactically relevant, but also symbolically interesting, for example, different weights of yarn, wrap paper, and mask cloth.

I used yellow wrap paper for my and my friend’s face, and yarn for our bodies. I glued the top of the yarn with the yellow wrap paper and left the other ends unglued to create a sense of stretching. For the grass, I used different colors and weights of yarn. I first made little yarn balls by winding yarn around using a toilet paper tube, then flattened it to create a fluffy texture. I used the longer yarn threads for the clouds.

I also wanted to add in some sakura flower petals in this scene, so I cut mask cloth into small pieces and glued them all around. I happen to have pink color masks so this becomes an interesting metaphor to use. I think in some ways, this choice of material shows that the lockdown is over while capturing my feeling during the lockdown to be closer to nature.

However, I could see that the below is inexpressible/lost through my work:

• Information and guidance. Without me explaining what each material stands for, it would be hard for the audience to see what it means.
• Lack of contrast. I used wrap paper for my and my friend’s face because I wanted to build a sense of contrast with the soft grass made with yarn. But this might not be as obvious as I imagined.
• Interactibility. Ideally, although this tactile graphic is about my story, I want to open room for interpretation. If I have more time, I will make a legend for this work, in which I will glue each texture I am using on a separate sheet of paper, and emboss what they stand for next to each texture. I would let blind and visually impaired audiences read the legend first, then invite them to touch the work, engage with it, and interpret what might be the story behind the scene.

Although theoretically, I am not rendering a physical image tactile, I do believe that I am rendering my mental image. I think in a mental image, emotion might stand out more than the information part. In this way, the affordance of tactile graphics is to provide another dimension for rendering such emotion which could be undescribable, by allowing people to touch and feel it.