8/16/07 hello, i intend to use this blog as a way to share some of my research, questions, ideas, etc in order to help spark, stimulate, and fuel thought in others. i will update info often. As time passes, I will share aspects of how i am using these concepts, this information, and other experiences to inform my larger project. please feel free to write to me with questions, comments, resources or other helpful suggestions. thank you so much! Landscapes of Uncertainty misc. notes, ideas…. WEBSITES anixter.org nfb.org thechicagolighthouse.org stepsinthesky.com (Mana Hashimoto, blind dancer in NYC—someone I hope to involve in LofU) nadc.ucla.edu/dance.cfm dancedetour.org bodiesofwork.org artlynx.org/heal/dance disabilityprideparade.com abilitiesfestival.org fiedmanplace.org blind.net tiresias.org bavisoft.com afb.org usaba.org acb.org geoffandwen.com wsana.org blindness.org guildfortheblind.org chipublib.org/012disability ela.org soon to add other artists/websites and possible links to related articles VIDEOS/MOVIES Zatoichi-the Blind Swordsman House of Flying Daggers Dancer in the Dark Wait until Dark Dark Victory Until the End of the World S.Teshigawara/KARAS-Luminous Marie Chouinard Anna Halprin W. Vandekeybus, The Body doesn’t Fit her Soul Natsu Nakajima, Kazuo Ohno, Goo Say Ten Kamigata mai? ?? BOOKS/ARTICLES Sight Unseen, G. Kleege 1999 On Blindness, B. Magee, M. Milligan 1995 Touching the Rock, J. Hull 1990 The Story of Blindness, G. Farrell 1956 Visual Handicaps and Learning, N. Barraga 1976 A Natural History of the Senses, D. Ackerman 1990 Planet of the Blind, S. Kuusisto 1998 Feminism and Disability, B. Hillyer 1993 The Eye of the Beholder: Deformity and Disability in the Graeco Roman World, R. Garland 1995 Blindness, J. Saramago 1997 Memoirs of the Blind: the Self Portrait and Other Ruins, J. Derrida 1990 Anna Halprin, L. Worth, H. Poynor 2004 The Expressive Body in Life, Art and Therapy, D. Halprin 2003 Anna Halprin: Experience as Dance, J. Ross 2007 Dance as a Healing Art, A. Halprin 2000 Moving Toward Life: Five Decades of Transformational Dance, A. Halprin 1995 *Disability and Contmporary Performance Art: Bodies on Edge, P. Kuppers 2003 *Bending Over Backwards: Essays on Disability and the Body, L. Davis Country of the Blind, H. G. Wells Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M Coetzee Our Twelve Senses, Steiner In Praise of Shadows, J. Tanziki Very Special People: the Struggles, Loves, and Triumphs of Human Oddities, F. Drimmer 1973 The Meaning of Blindness, M. Monbeck 1973 Living with Blindness, S. Parker 1989 Kazuo Ohno’s World: From Without and Within, K. Ohno, Y. Ohno 2004 Kazuo Ohno, E. Luisi, I. Bogea A Silent Minority: Deaf Education in Spain 1550-1835, S. Plann 1997 Researching Dance, S. Fraleigh, P. Hanstein, eds. 1999 Dancing Identity: Metaphysics in Motion, S. Fraleigh 2004 Dance: Rituals of Experience, J. Highwater 1978 Dance and the Lived Body, S. Horton-Fraleigh 1987 Bodies of the Text: Dance as Theory, Literature as Dance, E. Goellner, J.S. Murphy, eds. 1995 Visual Intelligence: How We Create what We See, D. Hoffman??
SELECTED QUOTES FROM BOOKS/ARTICLES/etc. Planet of the Blind: a Memoir, S. Kuusisto, (non-fiction, blind since childhood.) Pg.63 “I believe that in every blind person’s imagination there are landscapes…The unknown is worse, an epic terrain that, in the mind’s eye, could prevent a blind person from leaving home.” Pg.111 “You’re afraid to be seen as a disabled person even though you have a huge vision impairment.” Pg.178 “The strong blind move like modern dancers, their every gesture means something.” S. Teshigawara (2002 re: Luminous, dance piece with sighted and blind dancers) “I feel we have too much visual information. If we had less, we could discover other environmental spaces.” Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness, J. Hull, (non-fiction, blind as an adult) Rain, pg. 31 “Rain presents the fullness of an entire situation at once, not merely remembered, not in anticipation, but actually and now. The rain gives a sense of perspective and of the actual relationships of one part of the world to another. I am filled internally with a sense of variety, intricacy, and harmony. The knowledge itself is beautiful, because the knowledge creates in me a mirror of what there is to know. As I listen to the rain, I am the image of the rain, and I am one with it.” Acoustic space, pg. 82-83 “To do is to be. Mine is not a world of being, it is a world of becoming. The world of being, the silent, still world where things simply are, that does not exist…The world of happenings, movements and conflict, that is where things pass in and out of existence rapidly via sound…While the world which greets me in this way is active, I am passive.” Body time, pg. 93-94“If the blind live in time, the deaf live in space…Space is reduced to one’s own body and the position of the body is known not by what objects have been passed by but by how long it has been in motion. Position is thus the measure of time.” Seeing w/fingers, pg.109
“…to obtain insight into the maneuverability problems of another mode of cognition it is not enough to delete the faculty most immediately affected (sight). One must allow the ramifications of this mode to be experienced by deleting a second sense (touch) show how the nature of the second sense and its usefulness within the mode as a whole, undergoes a change. Touch is not the same for the sighted person as it is for the blind person. Deleting sight but leaving touch untouched gives a false impression, because touch is affected when sight is deleted. In other words, the blind person sees with his fingers.” Pg. 133 “Is it true that the blind live in their bodies rather than in the world?...At what point do I become only a line of thought-speech, without an environment of sensation and perception?...Where do thoughts come from? Into how many worlds am I inserted? What is blindness?” Body/memory/misc., pg. 138 “My place is known to me by the soles of my feet and by the tip of my cane.” Pg. 161 “Does not blindness give me an affinity with darkness? If the sun is the symbol of consciousness then the moon represents the magical source of our deeper life. Not only am I cut off from the physical sun, but less tolerant of consciousness unless it is frequently bathed in the mysterious energies of its opposite.” Efficiency, pg. 178-179 “Your consciousness is evacuated, and you are left to reconstruct it including a new sense of time, a new realization of body in space and so on…There is likely a drastic revision of priorities…There is something purging about blindness. One must recreate one’s life or be destroyed.”
My general notes and ideas from, Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness, J. Hull: Rain illuminates a continuous/seamless acoustic sense of space, full of depth and contours of everything simultaneously. This is a beautiful experience. Acoustic space is the tangible world that is within reach of the body and restricted to one ‘problem’ at a time—cannot explore multiple objects with physical sensation info. at once) Sound places one within a world. Sound is the world of action. Each sound is a point of activity. If no activity=silence=disappear/died. To rest is not to be—to pass out of existence. No gradual/immediate zone of approach-constant surprise. The sound producers take initiative to announce their presence. Blind has no power to explore them without their active cooperation. World of sight is continuous and stable, varies depending on direction. World of sound is intermittent and doesn't require ‘probing’ directionals (head can remain still). Blind has limited power over acoustic world. Cannot shut off ears. Ears are stationary on the head, but the eyes can move in head. Blind less aware of unchangeability—cannot see images of static constancy (like the stars)—sounds come and go=ephemeral world. Body time to blind helps indicate distance. Blind cannot hide. Sighted can choose whether active/passive roles especially socially. Blind usually are passive/receptive and cannot choose---they are ‘visited’. Blind really become blind if also cannot use hands Awareness of internal body sense (details, dimensions, etc) no visual correspondence to this realization of body. Body is a collection of sensitivities in a certain arrangement and this also gives a sense of space. Difference between info that comes from body-body senses and info that comes from mind/mental? Adults recently become blind—stop accumulating experiences---how to anchor/identify things/memories, etc. Usually we use visual images for cues, faces, landscapes, etc. But when not have visual—“experience has lost its punctuation marks.” Body memory deeper than visual—a recollection of how things felt. Different than vis. Memory because the body does not feel what the eyes see. Snow—not dangerous because of slipping, but because blankets details necessary to give sense of place. The body itself is an organ of sense and does not exceed its own dimensions Sometimes need sensory deprivation in order to rest/recover—combat bombardment of the senses Silence=sound, ?=sight?? Silence is still an act of hearing nothing (no sound) but if no sight, the vis. world continues—just you do not see it but it goes on….sound contains silence/absence, but sight is only presence. You listen to hear silence but blindess is not still the act of seeing. If you see, you see everything within the visual field-full range—but not same sense of totality for hearing (not always use full range of hearing field) Hearing is useful in silence, but sight is not useful in darkness. One never possess the sound—they come/go. But we can ‘possess’ a sight. We have power over what is seen b/c we can choose to open/shut eyes and thus affect what is taken in visually. We cannot choose for sounds, cannot shut ears, always receptive. Sound+silence come from beyond but is experience internally. Sight is experienced objectively. We have no power over that which is invisible but audible—we always remain open and attentive (re; the Transcendant/God) We do not see the Divine but hear—we do not have power to deny hearing but we can deny sight. So the divine is more ‘powerful’ than human. If divine were inaudible—then no power over human. Detect movement based upon sound—cannot perceive clouds moving or images outside car windows, etc. Can detect movement from own body perception too but not symmetrical--Knowledge of own body’s movements and movements of other things, cues from external sounds and internal sensation—rather than visual cues. If see the goal, then constantly reevaluates the amount of effort needed to reach the end. If cannot see goal then lose desire? No sense of progress—lots of work with little result? No sense of potential reach, only actual. Lack ‘incentive’ to turn purposeful action/grasped potential into actual. Can use memory to estimate amount of effort but if unfamiliar (route) then no possible to estimate. Process of adjust to adult blindness: hope, overcome problems, despair, recovery Blind exist in a world devoid of objects—not many draw him out of himself into life. Whole Body Seer Blind—independent, autonomous, authentic place of own but dependent of people w/eyes at some point. Own little world that must integrate into larger sighted world. No jealousy, no pity of sight, of blind.
Bindness, J. Saramago, (fiction: mysterious plague of ‘white blindness’ strikes a city) Pg.69 “…dear God, how we miss having our sight, to be able to see, to see, even if they were only faint shadows, to stand before the mirror, see a dark diffused patch and be able to say, that’s my face, anything that has light does not belong to me.” Pg. 126 “…What it would be like today if all those who now find themselves blind and lost, I say physically lost, both their eyes, what good would it do them now to be walking around with two glass eyes, You’re right, no good at all, With all of us ending up blind, as appears to be happening, who’s interested in aesthetics, and as for hygiene, tell me, doctor, what kind of hygiene is could you hope for in this place, Perhaps only in a world of the blind will things be what they truly are, said the doctor, And what about people, asked the girl with dark glasses, People too, no one will be there to see them…” pg. 133-134 “…Don’t think that blindness has made us better people, It hasn’t made us any worse…You have no idea what it is like to watch two blind people fighting, Fighting has always been, more or less, a form of blindness…I’ve spent my life looking into people’s eyes, it is the only part of the body where a soul might still exist and if those eyes are lost…” pg. 154-155 “…how did they recognize each other, by their voices of course, it is not only the voice of blood that needs no eyes, love, which people say is blind, also has a voice of its own…A silence that seemed to occupy the space of an absence, as if humanity, the whole of humanity, had disappeared.” Pg. 228-229 “…she was gripped by the most awful fear, that she might not be able to return to the spot where her husband was waiting for her…the darkness is like a thick paste that sticks to her face, her eyes transformed into balls of pitch…” pg. 230-231 “…from the first of all darkness, the womb in which it was formed, to the last where it would cease.” Pg. 246-247 “…but it has no basis in fact, because the eyes, the eyes strictly speaking, have no expression, not even when they have been plucked out, they are two round objects that remain inert, it is the eyelids, the eyelashes and the eyebrows, that have to take on board the different visual eloquences and rhetorics, notwithstanding that this is normally attributed to the eyes…animals are like people, they get used to everything in the end.” pg. 252 “…blind in eyes and blind in feelings, because the feelings with which we have lived and which allowed us to live as we were, depended on our having the eyes we were born with, without eyes feelings become something different, we do not know how, we do not know what…the feelings in use were those of someone who could see, therefore blind people felt with the feelings of others, not as the blind people they were now, certainly, what is emerging are the real feelings of the blind…for the moment we still live on the memory of what we felt, you don’t need eyes to know what life has become today…” pg.276 “…Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are…please don’t ask me what good and what evil are, we knew what it was at the time we had to act when blindness was an exception, what is right and what is wrong are simply different ways of understanding our relationships with the others, not that which we have with ourselves, one should not trust the latter…you do not know, you cannot know what it means to have eyes in a world in which everyone else is blind.” Pg. 292 “…Co you mean that we have more words than we need, I mean that we have too few feelings, Or that we have them but have ceased to use the words they express, And so we lose them…” pg. 294 “Don’t lose yourself, don’t let yourself be lost.” Pg. 307 “Silence is the best applause.” Pg. 317 “Images don’t see, You’re wrong, images see with the eyes of those who see them, only now that blindness is the lot of everyone, You can still see, I’ll see less and less all the time, even though I may not lose my eyesight I shall become more and more blind because I shall have no one to see me…” pg. 319 “The habit of falling hardens the body, reaching the ground is, in itself, a relief.” Pg. 324 “It even used to be said there is no such thing as blindness, only blind people, when the experience of time has taught us nothing other than that there are no blind people, but only blindness.” Pg. 326 “Why did we become blind, I don’t know, perhaps one day we will find out, Do you want me to tell you what I think, Yes, do, I don’t think we did go blind, I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see but do not see.”
My general notes and ideas from, Bindness, J. Saramago What is it to be seen? What is it to not be seen? And to know this fact yes/no To be blind or to see miseries and disturbing visuals? Apprehension—seeing is believing—to not know White blindness=endless day? Vs. dark blindness=endless night? What is it to be dazzled by light? Wild abandon, freedom, risk, unknown Life is filthy Aimless, wandering ghostlike vs. driven, direct, focused Absence vs. presence, solitude Dead=blind, blind=dead? Dark vs. light from inside and outside a person Those with eyes/clear vision have responsibility to those without? human vs. animal embarrassment, shame—so much our sense of shame is derived from knowing/having other people see us in compromising situations—knowing we are seen, to be caught be someone else’s eyes attaches you to the ‘shameful’ act, eyes of God, etc? light is like the gaze from eyes—like being seen. What the eyes do not see, the heart does not grieve over A rested body contributes to a rested mind Dark AND luminous Acceptance is more prevalent in blind people? We cannot experience everything but we can ask and imagine Disorganization=death, organization=life? Patience is good for the eyes The worst blind person was the one who did not want to see The pain after death is worse Whispers/murmurs like a long thread of sound that can last into infinity People fear ridicule Imagination=curse or salvation? What is it to be lost and how to find the way? Clean vs. dirty It is worse to be unacknowledged, erased The hands are the eyes of the blind Does God see everything or nothing—is it a sacrilege/offense to think God and saints are blind? Kamigata Mai Female, blind? chamber dance in intimate space. Horizontal line of movement rather than vertival Kyoto/Osaka region usually with shamisen Internal portrait More upper body (odori-Tokyo region=more lower body) 1x2 meters=dance space Classification of the senses Greek philosophy until 17th cent.: “inner senses”, common sense, intuitive judgement, imagination, memory, fantasy collect and purify data from 5 outer senses and transmit as intelligible forms to the rational soul. Buddhist=sensation, perception, imagination, understanding Sensation is embryonic perception. Perception is an act of creation—intention already exists within the subject/sensation Is visualization and visually-rich imagination connected to physiological capability to see? Landscapes Of Uncertainty is a concept/principle actually used in the fields of landscape ecology-MORE SOON!!! Topography, cartography, mapping—ground space, atmosphere space, internal space, time, etc…more soon
Feminism and Disability, B. Hillyer Pg. 163-164 “corporeal ground of intelligence” pg. 170 “’highly generalized body awareness’ such as that developed during severe childhood illnesses is strongly correlated with strong artistic, literary, and creative interests.”—Fischer, Body-Consciousness, pg. 137-138 My general notes and ideas from, Feminism and Disability, B. Hillyer ‘Expert’ knows more about your condition than you? athelets/dancers even though highly trained ‘experts’ in body sense, etc.. often trained with body as adversary to overcome. Ignore body, dissociate, abuse Meditation/yoga work to control and sublimate body to mind/spirit Cultivate another relation to mind-body-being=not athlete/conquer, not yogi/sublimate, but integrate? What is basic role of People with Disabilities (PWD) in society? --varies over the ages, but usually not seen as individuals with self-determination. USA Americans with Disabilities Act Always a question for society and usually a question about money. How public $ is used in support of PWD or PWD ability to contribute to society. Always a question for society because impact on PWD causes the able-bodied (usually the majority) to adjust. Able-bodied cannot assume same type of function in the same way which is what is expected in the public sphere—this is the basic assumption due to percentages of PWD ?????so idea of exception/accommodation/alternatives/difference to the majority….this costs $$ and time. So ethical questions about rights and peoples rights in relation to time and $. Smaller negotiations happen all the time in public realm because we are human, not machines operating within programmed tracks, etc—so more a question about what are the limits (basic and excessive?) of accommodation and adjustment for People With Differences?? If we know someone’s ‘problem’ then we are more willing to be understanding—otherwise we just read the behavior as rude, anti-social, mean, jerk-like, etc…we as a people are not at first accepting and accommodating of each others different ways of behaving—if someone behaves in a manner that is outside what we expect, then we usually immediately become critical-we assume ill will. BUT if we are given their justification, the reason, the ‘excuse’ for their odd behavior, then we can overlook our reaction that was based upon them being “normal’—which means being like ourselves. In general, we are not very tolerant of difference in behavior??? Something about assuming ill intentions of others first, rather than just difference? Something about demonstrating consideration for us/them? Do PWD need to announce their condition, their ‘difference’???
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