More than words can say
My name is Olivia Brouwer, and I am a partially blind, interdisciplinary artist based in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. My work often questions the dependency of vision in ocularcentric spaces while presenting multi-sensory artworks to enable an equalizing space for experiencing artworks.
I’ve used my time in this residency to develop a multi-sensory project that was first conceived from a residency with VibraFusion Lab in Fall 2024 and is scheduled for exhibition in Hamilton, Ontario in February 2026. The project was inspired by creative interpretations of image descriptions, which evolved into researching and developing alternative translation for describing tactile images through sound and vibration with a synthesizer programmed in Pure Data software. The synthesizer and paired tactile prompts will eventually be displayed within a telephone-like booth installation where the hidden translator inside is translating to the audience outside, creating an experimental multi-sensory language. This in-progress piece is entitled More than words can say to acknowledge that there are other ways of communicating beyond speaking as well as relying less on vision, which opens up the possibilities of a universal language to include a wider audience.
As you watch or listen to the videos demonstrating touching, sound making, and visual vibration, try to imagine the tactile experience while viewing or listening to the vibration and sound. The image and audio descriptions are shown to the right of the vertical triptych of videos.
More than words can say
Audio Description
Image Description
A column of three stacked videos are shown to the left of the screen.
The top video displays a collection of six by six inch wood panels with tactile patterns created with grey and off-white felt, dowels, paint, clay, and translucent plastic. The tactile patterns are placed together horizontally and read by touching from left to right, similar to the reading of Braille. As I run my fingers over the variety of textures, I pay attention to the characteristics of each material and the composition of shapes.
The second video displays a synthesizer interface shown on a computer screen. There is one long, horizontal, grey rectangle at the top. The second and third rows have five vertical grey boxes, some of which have light green squares with a wavy line inside. A final vertical grey box sits at the end of both the second and third rows. Each box also includes sliders for adjusting sounds. The sounds are created from my interpretation of what I am feeling from the tactile prompts.
The final video in the column displays a pattern created with salt on a vibrating surface. The pattern forms a new shape when the sounds created from the synthesizer change. The surface is called a tonoscope and the patterns created are known as cymatics.
This haptic project becomes a form of image and audio description that minimizes dependency on sight and encourages tactility to communicate. As language and communication often marginalizes Blind and Deaf audiences from experiencing works of art, the medium of sound and vibration as translation tools allows for their inclusion in order to participate with a playful, universal language.
0:00 – 0:31
Three tactile prompts are displayed right next to each other in a horizontal line. The first prompt has small, white, felt circles layered to create a pattern of semi-circles. The middle prompt is a laser cut wood grain pattern on a black background. The last prompt has six white felt strips arranged vertically, extended across a black panel, and twisted so that the middle of the strip becomes narrower.
As I begin touching the tactile prompts, the sounds and vibrating pattern appear. There are three layered sounds playing simultaneously. One reminds me of an idle vehicle with its engine running on a low and steady frequency. The other two are combinations of steady beats alongside inconsistent beats that combine tight taps, like sounds made by a drum brush, and a short echo like the sound made when tapping a long and hollow plastic tube.
The salt begins in a galaxy of swirls and dots which then form into two layered “P” shapes, then appear as organic oval shapes. The bottom shape is smaller and more round while the top shape keeps its “P” shape longer. Small grains of salt dance around each shape.
0:32 – 0:46
The prompt with the pattern of felt circles is examined closer to get a better sense of the material and its behaviour while interacting with it. The clip changes to another close-up of a new prompt with dark grey felt and small wooden dowels woven into the felt. The idle vehicle sound becomes deeper and more noticeable and closer to plane propellers with a deep tone. The two round salt shapes begin to connect as the base notes become stronger. The short, echoing, tapping tube sound accelerates the beat that feels like an anxious heart, then returns back to its original beat. The salt grains vibrate more vigorously while the shapes stay intact. The connection between the shapes continues to grow.
0:47 – 0:57
The dowel prompt continues to be examined. The smaller salt shape becomes smaller, depositing its grains to the larger shape. The echo transitions to a higher pitch and the tight tapping becomes louder.
0:58 – 1:05
A new prompt is revealed showing a translucent sheet of plastic with six randomly placed silver grommets and strings of felt spilling out of them. The propellor noise shifts slightly higher and lower in pitch. The salt form is similar to an upside-down canoe with a tent on top.
1:06 – 1:20
The echo drops suddenly like the sound fell down a waterfall. The sound is now low enough that you can feel the base notes bouncing off your eardrums. The propellor noise is more defined. I swirl the salt around to change the pattern which created three new individual shapes in a diagonal line, which include a shape that is mostly cut off at the bottom of the screen, an upside down “V” in the middle, and a jagged “l” shape. Halfway through, another new prompt is shown. A collection of twenty-five translucent plastic circles are adhered to a grid of thin dowels behind, which sits on a black background. Each circle has a fold in the centre and is slightly overlapping another circle. The low beat rises like its steadily ascending up a hill.
1:21 – 1:46
The tight tapping changes in and out of focus. The sounds descend and disappear shortly, then return with a high-pitched tapping like delicately clinking glasses or chattering teeth. The clinking or chattering continues in a noticeable offbeat rhythm. Halfway through this section, a repeated embossed wave pattern is set into paper. The wave goes down, up, down, up. The salt remains in their shapes, but are becoming thinner. The shape that was cropped is barely existing.
1:47 – 1:49
A sudden sawtooth sound wave appears and disrupts the rhythm. The sawtooth sound is as rigid as you would imagine – high-pitched, and sounds like what a saw blade looks like. The sounds quickly disappear and the former rhythm returns. The salt does not react.
1:50 – 2:13
Laser cut pieces of random linear shapes are arranged on a black background. The shapes look like pieces of a puzzle. They are straight, nearly straight, or curved. The middle salt shape is more like an “n” now, and the “l” shape is more like a lightning bolt. Halfway through, the twisted felt strip prompt is shown up close with my fingers running through the curved spaces in between. The rhythm continues and eventually the tight tapping softens like it was blanketed with the felt in the tactile prompt. The grains of salt slow the tempo of their dancing and bounce to a more defined beat. The tube echoing sound becomes more prominent.
2:14 – 2:26
The tight tapping disappears and a new sound replaces it – a more distinct, steady beat that distorts the echoing and tapping and becomes more unsettling, similar to the sound of a quickened alarm. Halfway through, the wood grain prompt is shown up close with my fingers running over the raised lines and empty space of the contrasting black background. The pitch becomes higher, reaching the general pitch of speaking volume. A soft, purring engine noise remains in the background. The salt shapes are less defined – the “n” has rounded and the lightning bolt is like a snail.
2:27 – 2:43
The unsettling alarm becomes less tight and feels more metallic and broad. This transitions to a softer, nasally beat. The salt responds with fewer movements, mostly jumping around the rounder shape. Halfway through, the tactile video changes to a new set of three prompts: the laser cut puzzle shapes, the embossed wave shapes, and the woven dowel prompt. My hand caresses each from left to right, paying attention to the tactile characteristics of each sequential pattern and matching sounds and vibrations to my haptic experience.
2:44 – 2:50
The beat becomes less defined and nearly straightens out into one undisturbed note, then returns to the same rhythm.
2:51 – 3:13
The nasal sound suddenly shifts to a sharper, triangular sound wave and increases its pitch. A basey, fan noise appears and continues simultaneously. The salt reacts frantically to the deep base fan note. The triangular wave and fan pitch drops and raises slightly, leveling to a midtone volume. The salt shapes respond by elongating into linear forms. The bottom shape is a large oval while the top returns to a defined lightning bolt.
The last five short clips show different prompts positioned together to present the variety of options that can be interacted with.
3:14 – 3:19
The triangular wave disappears, returns, raises to a high tinney sound, then drops again. The salt shapes are unchanging.
Image Description
A column of three stacked videos are shown to the left of the screen.
The top video displays a collection of six by six inch wood panels with tactile patterns created with grey and off-white felt, dowels, paint, clay, and translucent plastic. The tactile patterns are placed together horizontally and read by touching from left to right, similar to the reading of Braille. As I run my fingers over the variety of textures, I pay attention to the characteristics of each material and the composition of shapes.
The second video displays a synthesizer interface shown on a computer screen. There is one long, horizontal, grey rectangle at the top. The second and third rows have five vertical grey boxes, some of which have light green squares with a wavy line inside. A final vertical grey box sits at the end of both the second and third rows. Each box also includes sliders for adjusting sounds. The sounds are created from my interpretation of what I am feeling from the tactile prompts.
The final video in the column displays a pattern created with salt on a vibrating surface. The pattern forms a new shape when the sounds created from the synthesizer change. The surface is called a tonoscope and the patterns created are known as cymatics.
This haptic project becomes a form of image and audio description that minimizes dependency on sight and encourages tactility to communicate. As language and communication often marginalizes Blind and Deaf audiences from experiencing works of art, the medium of sound and vibration as translation tools allows for their inclusion in order to participate with a playful, universal language.
0:00 – 0:31
Three tactile prompts are displayed right next to each other in a horizontal line. The first prompt has small, white, felt circles layered to create a pattern of semi-circles. The middle prompt is a laser cut wood grain pattern on a black background. The last prompt has six white felt strips arranged vertically, extended across a black panel, and twisted so that the middle of the strip becomes narrower.
As I begin touching the tactile prompts, the sounds and vibrating pattern appear. There are three layered sounds playing simultaneously. One reminds me of an idle vehicle with its engine running on a low and steady frequency. The other two are combinations of steady beats alongside inconsistent beats that combine tight taps, like sounds made by a drum brush, and a short echo like the sound made when tapping a long and hollow plastic tube.
The salt begins in a galaxy of swirls and dots which then form into two layered “P” shapes, then appear as organic oval shapes. The bottom shape is smaller and more round while the top shape keeps its “P” shape longer. Small grains of salt dance around each shape.
0:32 – 0:46
The prompt with the pattern of felt circles is examined closer to get a better sense of the material and its behaviour while interacting with it. The clip changes to another close-up of a new prompt with dark grey felt and small wooden dowels woven into the felt. The idle vehicle sound becomes deeper and more noticeable and closer to plane propellers with a deep tone. The two round salt shapes begin to connect as the base notes become stronger. The short, echoing, tapping tube sound accelerates the beat that feels like an anxious heart, then returns back to its original beat. The salt grains vibrate more vigorously while the shapes stay intact. The connection between the shapes continues to grow.
0:47 – 0:57
The dowel prompt continues to be examined. The smaller salt shape becomes smaller, depositing its grains to the larger shape. The echo transitions to a higher pitch and the tight tapping becomes louder.
0:58 – 1:05
A new prompt is revealed showing a translucent sheet of plastic with six randomly placed silver grommets and strings of felt spilling out of them. The propellor noise shifts slightly higher and lower in pitch. The salt form is similar to an upside-down canoe with a tent on top.
1:06 – 1:20
The echo drops suddenly like the sound fell down a waterfall. The sound is now low enough that you can feel the base notes bouncing off your eardrums. The propellor noise is more defined. I swirl the salt around to change the pattern which created three new individual shapes in a diagonal line, which include a shape that is mostly cut off at the bottom of the screen, an upside down “V” in the middle, and a jagged “l” shape. Halfway through, another new prompt is shown. A collection of twenty-five translucent plastic circles are adhered to a grid of thin dowels behind, which sits on a black background. Each circle has a fold in the centre and is slightly overlapping another circle. The low beat rises like its steadily ascending up a hill.
1:21 – 1:46
The tight tapping changes in and out of focus. The sounds descend and disappear shortly, then return with a high-pitched tapping like delicately clinking glasses or chattering teeth. The clinking or chattering continues in a noticeable offbeat rhythm. Halfway through this section, a repeated embossed wave pattern is set into paper. The wave goes down, up, down, up. The salt remains in their shapes, but are becoming thinner. The shape that was cropped is barely existing.
1:47 – 1:49
A sudden sawtooth sound wave appears and disrupts the rhythm. The sawtooth sound is as rigid as you would imagine – high-pitched, and sounds like what a saw blade looks like. The sounds quickly disappear and the former rhythm returns. The salt does not react.
1:50 – 2:13
Laser cut pieces of random linear shapes are arranged on a black background. The shapes look like pieces of a puzzle. They are straight, nearly straight, or curved. The middle salt shape is more like an “n” now, and the “l” shape is more like a lightning bolt. Halfway through, the twisted felt strip prompt is shown up close with my fingers running through the curved spaces in between. The rhythm continues and eventually the tight tapping softens like it was blanketed with the felt in the tactile prompt. The grains of salt slow the tempo of their dancing and bounce to a more defined beat. The tube echoing sound becomes more prominent.
2:14 – 2:26
The tight tapping disappears and a new sound replaces it – a more distinct, steady beat that distorts the echoing and tapping and becomes more unsettling, similar to the sound of a quickened alarm. Halfway through, the wood grain prompt is shown up close with my fingers running over the raised lines and empty space of the contrasting black background. The pitch becomes higher, reaching the general pitch of speaking volume. A soft, purring engine noise remains in the background. The salt shapes are less defined – the “n” has rounded and the lightning bolt is like a snail.
2:27 – 2:43
The unsettling alarm becomes less tight and feels more metallic and broad. This transitions to a softer, nasally beat. The salt responds with fewer movements, mostly jumping around the rounder shape. Halfway through, the tactile video changes to a new set of three prompts: the laser cut puzzle shapes, the embossed wave shapes, and the woven dowel prompt. My hand caresses each from left to right, paying attention to the tactile characteristics of each sequential pattern and matching sounds and vibrations to my haptic experience.
2:44 – 2:50
The beat becomes less defined and nearly straightens out into one undisturbed note, then returns to the same rhythm.
2:51 – 3:13
The nasal sound suddenly shifts to a sharper, triangular sound wave and increases its pitch. A basey, fan noise appears and continues simultaneously. The salt reacts frantically to the deep base fan note. The triangular wave and fan pitch drops and raises slightly, leveling to a midtone volume. The salt shapes respond by elongating into linear forms. The bottom shape is a large oval while the top returns to a defined lightning bolt.
The last five short clips show different prompts positioned together to present the variety of options that can be interacted with.
3:14 – 3:19
The triangular wave disappears, returns, raises to a high tinney sound, then drops again. The salt shapes are unchanging.
A Peek into the Process
Step 1: Sketch and model
The images of the booth sketch and synthesizer model cast the vision for the completed project. The sketch provides an idea of what will be seen from the outside of the booth and how to engage with it. The synthesizer model is a long horizontal rectangle with a square platform for vibration on each end.
Step 2: Pure Data synthesizer production and design
I had very limited knowledge of the technical aspects coming into this project. Due to prolonged technical problem-solving, learning Pure Data proved to be very challenging without proper guidance. However, once I found a resourceful tutorial from The Wayfarer Project, I was able to easily follow along to create a running synthesizer and sampler.
I am currently facing the challenge to connect the Pure Data file with a MIDI controller and Raspberry Pi computer that will activate all the synthesizer functions and how this will inform the final design of the laser cut synthesizer interface. I will continue developing this beyond the residency.
Step 3: Tactile prompts
By listening to the variety of sounds that I could create with the synthesizer, I developed a twenty-one sketches of tactile tiles made from different materials that I would provide the translator with. Up to four 6” x 6” square tiles can be selected and arranged in a way that the translator can interpret through sound and vibration in its sequential order. Each pattern is inspired by sound wave shapes and are simplified designs in order to be legible tactually.
Additional Explorations
Throughout this residency, I have been from reading The Agency of Access: Contemporary Disability Art & Institutional Critique by Amanda Cachia. Here are some insightful quotes I have found that informed and resonated with my practice:
- “Alison O’Daniel offers a different mode of access that might replicate her own daily experience of being in the world. Rather than perceiving this strategy as a compensation for what is ‘lost’, the idea is to focus on what is gained, in line with the rhetoric of deaf gain. …deaf gain focuses on the creative and intellectual benefits of deafness and turns around pejorative ideas of lack regarding the state of deafness.” (pg 91)
- “Prior to the 1800’s, museums used to provide cabinets of curiosity that could, in fact, be touched. With the massive growth of museums, tactile engagement became unsustainable owing to an inability to maintain a controlled environment to keep a watchful eye over greasy hands and clumsy fingers. As museums of art evolved into conduits for civic education, deferential models of visitor behaviour were introduced that entrenched norms forbidding touch. …The repercussions include tactile amnesia within accounts of art history and a loss of language to discuss tactile aesthetics.” (pg 147)
- “…vibration proves it is a universal language that “speaks” to people of vastly different cultural and social backgrounds.” (173-174)
- “In our view, language and communication, instead of being considered universal systems of knowledge and expression, should be viewed as hyper-specific, ever-evolving fields of experience, which must gain priority over official and legal definitions. In ‘disarming’ the stability of language and communication, we seek to render it problematic as straightforward systems of knowledge and power.” – Christine Sun Kim and Neils Van Tomme (pg 202)
- “By inheriting a new role as exhibition designers, alongside that of traditional artist or curator, contemporary disabled artists are more empowered than ever before to shake up the ableist foundations of museum and gallery culture, to reveal its inadequacies, and to advantageously use this hybrid role as an activist platform. It is now the contemporary disabled artist – as opposed to the curator, interpreter, or translator – who is the gatekeeper of navigating the museum experience for the visitor.” (pg 216)
Residency Reflection
Along with the development of this project, we discussed what unique leadership characteristics we possess that informs our role as Deaf and disabled artists and activists. The leadership drivers that I place value in include recognition, aesthetics and tradition. I also often operate as a quiet, situational, and serving leader. This knowledge has led me to create a metaphor that resembles these characteristics within the behaviours of water movement (trickling streams, rushing rapids, steady rivers, etc) as I often find myself adapting to whatever situation I am in, performing best in calm ripples, and offering thirst-quenching provision and servitude to those close to me when needed.
As I reflect on these character traits, I consider how my identity ties in with my purpose here on earth. My spiritual relationship to God, the Creator, often informs my creative practice in tandem with themes of blindness, clarity, justice, and love for one another. Within this particular project, the synthesizer becomes a metaphor for these themes and resembles a similar experience of learning how to communicate through prayer with the unseen Trinity.
I will end with this quote that represents a beautiful moment of clarity from not only a spiritual, but also a metaphorical perspective within the context of my work.
“Immediately, something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see again.”
Acts 9:18a
