Art and music

[kestrell]

Kes: I'm particularly excited about this pairing of music and art as I think it has potential for allowing blind individuals to access art through its associations with the art form of music. It reminds me of a book which combines art and poetry titled _The Gazer's Spirit: Poems Speaking to Silent Works of Art_ by John Hollander which also possesses this sense of shared aesthetics between the visual and the audible.

All this month on WCDB in Boston host Cathy Fuller will be featuring a work of classical music that complements one of the works of art in the new Art of the Americas wing of the MFA.
Read about it by going to
995allclassical.org
and browsing to the link titled
Music and Art for January
Kes: I can't find any more specific info about when this airs on the radio, but I do know that it is between noon and four in the afternoon.

Comments

[kestrell]

Sadly, I don't think the MFA does things like tactile representations. I looked at their access services page and they seem to provide an audio description guide through iPods, although I am also uncertain whether they provide the iPods or just let you download the guide to your own. Also, the page where they list the prices for tickets and more info about the guides (I believe these have an additional cost) is inaccessible with a screenreader. I don't get a really positive impression about the MFA from their Web site, but I am hoping to get there sometime in the next month or two with an artsy friend of mine--perhaps it will be more impressive in person.

Also, I meant to reply to your last comment about beads but Monday was dentist day and by the time I got back I was completely wiped. Anyway, I am hoping to get some dark green and silver-grey beads that resedmble stones and some shiny silver ribbon and make a meandering stream that winds through the tapestry, with some stones alongside it. The cards of colors and textures sound amazing--I will have to send you some money for some next month (I've spent my crafts budget for Jan. already--I see how insidious the crafting fetish can be).

We are supposed to be getting a snowstorm on Friday/Saturday, but various art books and supplies should show up before then, so I am hoping to begin working out some ideas this weekend.

[jesse_the_k]

Boo hoo on the MFA. I have enjoyed my time there in person (fyi, the Isabella Gardner claims to be wheelchair accessible but the doorways have 1/8 inch clearances).

I have to admit I'm getting cynical about access efforts, having watched them ebb and flow in institutions, education, and government for 25 years. As always, the key are people who are invested in it, who enjoy the challenge — either because they share the experience of being designed out, or because they're just randomly awesome.

I think I can supply beads to that specification. I just happened to be next to a card of of five different textures all cream/ivory — good for drawing boundaries, yes? — headed your way real soon now.

[kestrell]

Hey J, that's really sweet of you to send me beads!

I kind of am trying to find perks for today--I had a really negative accessibility experience earlier and it just really depressed me. Green Man Review, the online mag for which I have done reviews for a few years, just went to a blog format. I requested when this was first proposed that we include accessibility, the editor and head tech person both agreed, and then I didn't hear anything during the porting process. Today I went to post a review and surprise, it's on WordPress but still uses these links labeled with images and not text, and those pulldown menus are not accessible. The tech's reply when I mentioned these elements were not accessible? "I'm confident that you'll figure it out." She did offer to post for me, but I've found that this is really nto a good experience (the point of a blog is that you are able to post to it and read it immediately).

I don't think it would have depressed me so much if people hadn't been so positive about including accessibility in the first place. And I am tired of having to argue that access means more than just being all PC, it means actually following through and your promises.

Sorry for ranting, but I know you probably get the "I'm tired of fighting this fight...again" thing. I think I will go crawl into my comfy reading chair with Lord Peter and hang out until Alexx comes home with drugs and a BLT (some days really call for crispy pig parts).

[jesse_the_k]

Damn, that's shitty news about the Green Man. You've written lots of things for them, so it's not like you're some unknown quantity. (Not that this should make a difference ... but).

In a perfect world, I would have the energy to write a polite and firm letter excoriating them for giving me more working. Ask them how they'd like it if you required they put all communicate in braille. There are plenty of braille producers in the Boston area — "I'm confident you can figure it out."

However, today, I feel more like a flaming bag of dogshit on the doorstep. Lord Peter is always good. Hey! There's 81 Lord Peter fanfics on the Archive of our Own here's a linky. Sorry, no reviews, but it might be a close second to good bacon.