DIY-AT: Tactile Graphics and Touch Objects

Visual Description of Tactile Graphic: This is an oil painting by the artist Ferdinand Hodler. The painting is a portrait of a young lady dressed in a
luxurious silk, pink, dress. She is elegantly leaning onto a chair with her feet pointing out to the right side, elongating her silhouette. She wears her hair in an updo. The painting has playful, bright colors with the wall decorated in a gold hue and the floor with complementary green and red tiles.

List of parts/materials: Scrap silk fabric, scrap corduroy fabric, threads, sewing machine, glue, cardboard, paper, ColorAid paper, and scissors

Visual Description of Tactile Graphic: Touch object for Ellsworth Kelly’s Blue and Orange and Green (Bleu et orange et vert) from Suite of Twenty-Seven Color Lithographs. Display of objects from top to bottom: a set of defrosted, jumbo blueberries shaped into a flower; a quarter-cut of a cara cara navel orange with the juice vesicle part of the fruit exposed; and a quarter-cut of a lemon with the outer skin part of the fruit exposed.

List of parts/materials: Cardboard box, 7 blueberries,  1 cara cara navel orange, 1 lemon, Knife, Gorilla Glue, Q-tips, Plastic cover (removeable)

Visual Description of Tactile Graphic: A pipe cleaner re-creation of the Carrousel Pierrot sculpture that captures the shapes and colors of the original piece. The pipes are shaped to represent the head, body, arms and additional abstract body parts of the sculpture

List of parts/materials: Pipe cleaner, Tape, Cardstock paper

Visual Description of Tactile Graphic: A Purim Noisemaker is a toy/ instrument used during Purim a Jewish Carnival holiday, Purim, in triumph of the Jewish Queen Esther outwitting Haman, the adviser to the King of Persia. The noise maker is spun to make a loud clicking noise whenever Haman’s name is spoken. 

The Purim Noisemaker produces a clicking noise by holding the handle and making a circular motion to spin its top. The instrument is and upside down “L” shape. It has a stick like handle which gets skinner towards the top. A thick gear a little less than 2 cm thick in width and with about 8 teeth .5 in length evenly spaced, is fixed between two small planks of wood 15 cm long. While the gear is stationary these planks of wood can freely rotate around the stick; however, at their ends they are conjoined so they rotate as one. The small piece of wood joining the planks holds a thin flat piece of wood or flexible material that when the instrument is spun will hit the teeth on the gear to make a slap/clicking noise.

List of parts/materials: Wooden dowel, Hex threaded bolt 5/16^th and 4in, x4 (5/16^th) hex nuts, Scrap wood, Sturdy yet flexible wood/cardboard, elastic, x1 Philips head screw, shoelace. Fabrication completed with a drill, saw, and sanding tools.

Visual Description of Tactile Graphic: Arlene Shechet’s “A Night Out” recreated as a miniature using floral foam to replicate the texture of the original and has been painted with bright violet-blue paint.

List of parts/materials: Floral Foam, Butter Knife to carve, Nail art device  for finer carving, Paint Brush and paint to prevent the material from disintegrating, Super glue and toothpick to hold the base and body together

Visual Description of Tactile Graphic: Tactile representation of the abstract painting Elevation, by the artist named Elise, part of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s permanent collection. Includes a abstract blue bird on a yellow background. Thread and wires are used to highlight the edges of the bird and background featured in the original painting. 

List of parts/materials:

8 ½ x 11” card stock, Cotton t-shirt, Watercolor paint, Sharpie Marker, 30AWG Stranded-Core Wire in light blue, 22AWG Stranded-Core Wire in red and blue, Light gels in red and blue, Cotton string, Hot glue, Elmer’s glue, Foam Core

Visual Description of Tactile Graphic: This is a tactile portrait featuring a woman sitter with curly hair, necklace and a dress with soft fabric and draperies. There are multiple layers in the tactile graphic and I displayed them according to the orders in the three dimensional world. In the original painting, the lady’s dress plays an important role, so I treated that part differently in the tactile presentation.

List of parts/materials: Multiple materials, including cardboard, tissue, paperboard strips and UV gel.

Visual Description of Tactile Graphic:

List of parts/materials:

Visual Description of Tactile Graphic:

List of parts/materials:

Visual Description of Tactile Graphic:

List of parts/materials: