brain BRAILLE2000

When we look at ice, its coolness is conveyed right to our hands.

Looking at a wooden wall, a sense of warmth seems to reach our skin.
When we look at things we feel their textures at the same time.
To see is to touch. When we look at something we graze its surface with our eyes, stroke it with our vision.
The senses of sight and of touch are intimately connected.

Works of art that demonstrate this connection are installed in the subway concourse.
One part of a wall is lined with Braille type and enlargements of Braille blocks, brief fragments of words.
Letters remain legible whether they are large or small. Braille type is different. There is an absolute limit to the practical size of Braille. Enlarged beyond that limit, it becomes illegible.
These are words, but have the shape of words which cannot be read.
These shapes convey the meaning of size.

Braille type is read with the fingertips. If one touches metal Braille type to read the words "texture of wood," two distinct sensations are superimposed.
What happens when we read the word "metal" inscribed on a wooden block ?
The sense of touch, words within the mind -- the tactile sense of visible materials, words in the mind.
Where the senses of sight, touch and meaning are concerned, there arises an indefinable shifting from consciousness to feeling and back.
This artwork attempts to instigate that small wavering in between mind and sensation.