# Can a blind person major in art?

Category: Cram Session

## Post 1 by purple penguin (Don't you hate it when someone answers their own questions? I do.) on Sunday, 21-Mar-2010 23:08:58

Hello everyone
Has there ever been a blind person majoring in art in college? Is it possible because it's very visual? I'm sure there are long papers interpreting a painting somewhere. In fact, I had to take an online humanities course where we had to analyse a piece of art in a museum, which didn't go over so well.

## Post 2 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Sunday, 21-Mar-2010 23:25:35

I think it would be a bit difficult but certainly not impossible. There are actually blind artists out there who make paintings, sculptures etc. based on touch. Also, you might see if you can have certain courses tailored so that they're more about theory or perhaps you can read the descriptions of certain pieces and give your opinions. This is an extremely interesting topic and I look forward to reading other responses to it. In the meantime, you might want to check out an interesting thread of mine in the Crafts forum. It's actually about how blind crafters do certain things without site, how they imagine, say, a vase, a painting etc. that they want to create and they go about doing it. I got some very interesting answers. perhaps, some of the artists in that thread could help you here. I've put the link below so that you don't have to go searching for it. Good luck.
http://www.zonebbs.com/boards.php?t=20798

## Post 3 by purple penguin (Don't you hate it when someone answers their own questions? I do.) on Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010 22:57:27

Hmm. I'll go take a look at that. I got through art classes in high school, but I'm sure it's a lot different in college. It's hard to picture what something looks like when someone describes it. They probably make us go to museums, where you are not allowed to tuch anything. I always found them to be boring for tha treason.

## Post 4 by LeoGuardian (You mean there is something outside of this room with my computer in it?) on Wednesday, 24-Mar-2010 16:18:34

I guess you also may want to think about what you want with an art major. Did you used to see? That makes certain things easier I guess. But largely with things strictly visual we are subject to the middlewear of interpretation / editorializing, rather than a frank description. I can design a functional, and reasonably pleasing (visually) UI, but as a developer, I use equations / math / calculations to make determinations on what to do, especially with color. And frankly, that part can be an endless source of frustration, for the simple reason that there is no interpretation from my end. Meaning you can take the trendy color pallets used for various things, import what you need, things like that, but I make no bones about understanding it from a visual perspective. I'm very spacia, I guess you could say, in that dimensionality is important and useful, something we really miss if we use the one-dimensional mode we call speech as blind people, and with Braill you get maybe two dimensions at most but you still have to work for it. But I have members of my family who are extremely visual. So much so, that growing up it took me a long time to actually learn that not all people who can see have the same level of need or appreciation for visually attractive environments. Add to this that one person's art is another's junk. Note how people can contradict one another in some pretty profound ways visually, even arguing over what color something is. It isn't real, it's just their perceptions. By not real, I mean the color is precisely at a particular point on the light spectrum and can in fact be calculated, but none of this matters. It's not like music, where you know an a minor 7 is an a minor 7 is an a minor 7, no matter the inversion, location on the octaves, or whatever. To sighted people who are visually artistic or discriminating, these common denominators basically do not exist. Ask any of us software engineering folks who have had to get a marketing type to create an image. They can't even do dimensions properly. 60 by 80 pixels is 60 by 80 pixels, but if they think that 120 by 80 is the same, they'll argue the point until you simply shrink it for them or get someone else. Then you'll get the two of them fighting like a pair of tomcats, because basically they don't have a clue about precision. It's only perceptive precision aka if it looks their version of precise. Ever wonder why so many games created by art students crash? There's your anser in a nutshell.
So if you don't have a frame of reference aka you never used to see, you're going to be in a world of hurt, I think, because rather than real data, you will be subject to the miry quicksand of perceptions masked as real data. And perhaps many of us have gotten a shirt or some other piece of clothes recommended by one party, only to have another equally intelligent, equally fashion savvy individual rate it as attrocious.
On the other hand, if you have a frame of reference, aka, you used to see, you will no doubt have one of these said perceptions, and if you hook up with a place or people that are in your sphere, you will probably be OK.
Just remember you're not dealing with real data. You are dealing with a bunch of perceivers, like the outcome-based-educators of the 1990s where 2+2 = 3, or 5, or maybe a hundred if that's what they want. And by your very search for data, you can start a war.

## Post 5 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 24-Mar-2010 16:46:21

Very interesting. I never even thought of it that way. then again, I'm not into science or mathematics beyond numerology, tarot, astrology etc. In any case, I do know that if you call certain museums ahead of time and explain that you're blind, or if you have aprofessor do it, they'll often let you touch things or will provide copies of said things for you to explore with your hands so that you won't damage the originals. Remember that art isn't strictly painting. it's also sculpting, woodworking, weaving and other things that are more easily accessible. If it's the history you're after, then that makes it alot easier. it's far more understandable to read about certain periods in art, who painted/drew what when, about the socio-economic conditions when a certain movement was going on than it is to have the professor say "look at this and tell me what you think". so you might want to go that angle if you can.

## Post 6 by LeoGuardian (You mean there is something outside of this room with my computer in it?) on Wednesday, 24-Mar-2010 18:13:41

Well those aren't science but beliefs:
numerology: has nothing whatsoever to do with math or equations, it's just a use of numbers as abstract symbols meaning religious things. I've even heard conservative Christians get all worked up over the number six. So asked, what about the square root of 36? Dazed expression, aka deer in headlights.
tarot: Not science, as you can't really control / experiment / produce output but abstract symbology of some sort.
astrology: Though most of our presidents used it, very different charts from astronomy. Where's Neptune? Doesn't really matter cause it's belief. You wouldn't navigate a starship with an astrological chart; not science.
Could add more that aren't science: six-day-creationist belief: Not compatible with many findings in the human genome, or the geological record.
Saying all this is cience is like claiming that you believe in gravity, or have faith in 2+2.

## Post 7 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 24-Mar-2010 19:00:24

Leave it to the hard core science types to discredit these studies. In any case, you can certainly do numerology without getting religious. You also need to do calculations for everything from the most basic to the most complicated things. So math is certainly involved. Astrology is more than belief. You can't simply sit down and do a chart, particularly a very advanced one, unles you know the meanings of everything, not just what the books tell you about the signs, but about locations, human nature, your own observances etc. you can't just say that you believe this and then claim it's true. I'm not an expert on it but had a long conversation with someone who is, the same person who's teaching me numerology as a matter of fact, and they're all intertwined and connected sciences. The things she's told me were quite astonishing and it took her well over a ecade to amass the amount of knowledge she has on these various subjects. Thus far, I've had the most experience with tarot, as a client not as a reader, and I can say that it's one of the most accurate forms of divination I've ever come across. That said, it's also up to the person doing the reading. Everyone has their own interpretations and whatnot, so it's not exact, though there is a board for certifying readers, on various levels so there must be a way to test them. good thing I didn't bring up parapsychology or cryptozoology. Things based purely on religion, such as a creationist belief, are not science by any definition and shouldn't be confused with it. Anyway, sorry for getting off topic here.

## Post 8 by crazy_cat (Just a crazy cat) on Saturday, 27-Mar-2010 21:04:31

If you are not able to touch things at a museum, then you may want to check out and antique store or warehouse where they are a bit more liberal about allowing you to touch things. Just be careful because if you break something then you will have to buy it. I went to an antique house in Chicago once and loved it simply because I was not scolded for touching some of the artifacts that were on display.