Approaching blindness through craft.
My friend Sam has lived with impaired sight all his life.
By teaching Sam how to measure, mark and cut traditional dovetail joints the project shines new light on many of the familiar conversations around craft and interrogates the commonly held notions of skill, accuracy, deftness, and of how we assign value to the handmade object.
The project aims to challenge assumptions about sight impaired people’s capabilities around accuracy and safety and offers creative methods by which designers can better understand the needs of sight impaired people in ways that simulation can’t.
The aim of this project is to produce an entry way into the sensory experience of woodworking for sight impaired people. I have designed and made a kit of parts where vision isn’t a necessity. Step-by-step instructions written in Braille guide the maker through the stages of building a stool.
There is value not only in inviting more people to share in this experience but also in challenging assumptions about what people with a disability can and can’t do and to allow us to re-examine what we love and find so important about woodwork.
Film.
The kit emphasises key experiences such as smell and feel of wood and leather, the sound and action of spring latches, the weight and swing of a mallet hitting a wedge tenon and the thud and sensation of previously separate wooden elements becoming one. Grooves and notches guide the maker, matching each component to its correct partner.
A case study.