Victorian Blindness at the National Archive

On Thursday 3rd December, 2015, Dr Heather Tilley is giving a public lecture on 'Victorian Blindness: A History of Advocacy':

Blindness in the Victorian era was an issue of popular - and often fraught – debate. Using the history of finger reading, this talk will trace how blind and visually-impaired people became increasingly vocal in seeking control and ownership over social and political issues that directly affected them, introducing some of the era's most prominent and influential blind campaigners.
More details here

Jacques Lusseyran and Jérôme Garcin

One of the highlights of the Blind Creations conference was Zina Weygand's keynote speech about the blind French resistance hero Jacques Lusseyran. (The recording of Weygand's talk is available on this page in French; the English translation is here). Now another of the conference's invited speakers, French novelist Romain Villet (who took part in the Creative Writers' Round Table, available here), has written a response to Jérôme Garcin's recent fictionalised biography of Lusseyran, Le Voyant. In his article (available in French here), Villet argues that even though Garcin's book offers a thoughtful discussion of Lusseyran's blindness, most readers of both Garcin and Lusseyran, fail to critically interrogate the often stereotypical, often flawed representations of blindness with which they are presented.

Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month Crash Course

On Wednesday 21st October 2015, from 6-9 pm GMT, 8 participants from Blind Creations will be sharing their thoughts on the relationship between blindness and creativity. Callers from outside the US and Canada can find details of how to listen here.
 - At 6pm, Selina Mills, Sebastien Durand and Anne-Lise Mithout will be talking about music (click here to listen or participate).
 - At 7pm, David Johnson and Aaron McPeake will be talking about their art (click here to listen or participate).
 - And at 8pm, three of the writers from the Creative Writers' Roundtable, Romain Villet, Naomi Foyle and Rod Michalko will be discussing their work (Click here to listen and participate).

All three sessions are free and open to all. All you need is a telephone and you can listen or participate. The events are taking place as part of Art Beyond Sight's 2015 Awareness Month Telephone Crash Course and they are a great chance to reconnect with fellow Blind Creations participants and share the conference's legacy. All three sessions will be moderated by Hannah Thompson and she would love to hear from you.

If you cannot listen and / or participate live on Wednesday, the sessions will be recorded and posted online after the event. Details will be available here.

Announcement of Lecture

On Tuesday 13th October, at 6pm, one of our speakers, Dr Simon Hayhoe (FBCS, FRSA), will give a Fulbright Lecture entitled 'Why do we think that Blind People cannot understand Visual Art?' in the Michael Berry Lecture Theatre, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK.

The lecture looks at the philosophy of blindness and its relationship to visual art and education since the late Renaissance and the earliest years of the Enlightenment. In particular, it looks at the fascination with blindness and its relationship to perception of the visual world by da Vinci, Descartes, Boyle, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Diderot. This literature is then compared to case studies of blind people’s experience of creating and learning about the visual arts in universities and museums.

Exciting News about the Next Conference!

We are delighted to announce that plans are underway for the Paul K Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University and Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired to host the third 'blindness' conference in San Francisco, most likely in summer 2017. More details coming soon...

Blog Post from Maria Oshodi

Many thanks to Maria Oshodi from Extant who has written a blog post about the conference and the wonderful Flatlands demo. Read the blog post here.

UK Press Coverage

We are delighted that Hannah's article about the conference was published this week in The Guardian. Read the article here. A French summary of the article is here.

Conference Account by Naomi Foyle

One of our creative writers, Naomi Foyle, has written a very thoughtful response to the conference here. Many thanks Naomi!

A Blind Spot Blog Post About the Conference

After spending a few days recovering from the conference, Hannah has written a blog post describing her emotional response to the conference.

The Story of the Conference in Tweets!

We've created a Story of the Conference from tweets using the #BlindCreations hashtag! You can relive some of the highlights of the event by clicking here.

Thank you!

The image shows Vanessa and Hannah - looking tired but happy - in the Picture Gallery immediately after the audio tour.

Many thanks indeed from Hannah and Vanessa to all the delegates and helpers who made the conference such a success. We are so grateful for your energy and goodwill, and very touched by the gifts and messages of thanks we are receiving. I think we all agree that together we created a truly unique event.
Now we need your help to sustain the conference's legacy: please continue to share your thoughts and photos of the event via facebook, twitter and your own sites. Let us know about new collaborations, networks and projects which grow out of the event and check back here regularly for updates about the audio archive and any press coverage we hear about.

Public Transport this Weekend

There are some engineering works taking place this weekend which may affect journeys to Royal Holloway and the Victoria and Albert Museum. We recommend you check the Transport for London website: https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

Welcome!

Our first delegates arrive at Royal Holloway today! We look forward to meeting you soon.

Facebook and Twitter

We now have a facebook page where you can share questions and comments about the conference. Like us here.
Over on twitter we will be live-tweeting and answering questions using #Blind Creations.

Registration Closes Friday 19th

If you would like to attend the conference, please register by Friday June 19th.

'Too Big to Feel' lands at Royal Holloway

The image (photo by Ruth Cruickshank) shows 18 giant concrete domes laid out to spell a phrase in Grade 2 (contracted) Braille on a grassy slope in front of the Founders' Building, Royal Holloway, University of London. Seventeen of the domes are painted white, and one is red.

Blind artist David Johnson has created a spectacular, tactile, outdoor installation at Royal Holloway. The art work, which is part of both the Blind Creations conference and the Great Charter Festival, is a stunning celebration of the creative power of blindness which calls for equal rights for disabled people. Read more about all the art works on show during Blind Creations here and click here for a blog post describing how David installed the piece, with photo and video..

Check-In Details Added

Check-in details for all delegates have been added to the 'Audio-Visual and Access Info for Presenters' page and the 'Travel and Arrival Information' pages.

Two conference delegates featured on BBC Two's See Hear

On Wednesday June 3rd at 8:15 am BST, two of our presenters, Riitta Lahtinen and Russ Palmer, will feature on BBC Two's monthly Deaf magazine programme, See Hear. View a clip from the programme here.

Local Information Added to Travel Pages

As the conference approaches, we've added some information about the local area to the Travel page. If you are arriving early or staying on after the conference, click here for some ideas of things to do and places to eat and drink.

Early Bird Prices Ending May 1st!

Delegates are reminded to register for Blind Creations via the online store this week (see here for a talk-through): prices go up after May 1st.

Online Store Talk-Through

If you are finding the online store difficult to use, the following talk-through might be helpful. Alternatively, Hannah is happy to provide telephone or skype support.

1) When you arrive at the online store home page, use the ‘Navigation’ menu on the left-hand side of the page: hold your mouse over ‘Product Catalogue’ then ‘Events and Conferences’ and then cluck on ‘Blind Creations’ from the drop-down menu that appears. 

2) Next, scroll down to see all the items associated with the conference and choose the first item you want to add to your basket by clicking the ‘Add to Basket’ label next to it. This will take you to the questionnaire and after you have filled that in, click ‘Next’ and this item will be listed in your ‘Shopping Basket’.

3) To add another item, do not click on ‘Continue Shopping’. Instead use the left-hand ‘Navigation’ menu again (as you did in step 1) and hover over ‘Product Catalogue’ then ‘Events and Conferences’ and then click on ‘Blind Creations’. This will take you back to our list of products and you can add more items by repeating the procedure outlined in step 2. You can repeat as many times as required.

4) When you have added all the items you want, click ‘Proceed to Checkout’ on the ‘Shopping Basket’ screen and follow the payment instructions.

NEW: Friday night accommodation now available

Delegates arriving in London or Egham on Friday 26th June can now book an additional night of accommodation on campus via the online store.

Pre-Conference Touch Tour of V and A Collection

We are delighted to announce that Selina Mills's fascinating article about her experience of a sculpture touch tour has inspired us to arrange a pre-conference treat for blind and partially blind delegates.

The tour will take place at the Victorian and Albert Museum in central London on Saturday 27 June at 2pm. We will arrange guided travel from Egham. If you would like to experience the Victoria and Albert Museum's sculptures through touch during an hour-long tour by Elizabeth Hamilton, please book your place by emailing Hannah. There are only 10 places available and they will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Pre-Conference Workshops

We are delighted to offer conference delegates the chance to take part in one of two exciting pre-conference workshops: either a practical art-making workshop exploring the connections between blindness and creativity, or a session on audio description. For more details click here.

Stephen Kuusisto

The organizers of the Blind Creations conference regret to announce that plenary speaker Stephen Kuusisto will not be able to join us in June.  We're grateful to him for his best wishes for our event and we hope to have the pleasure of hearing him speak on blindness and creativity at a future event.

Registration Now Open

Registration for Blind Creations is now open!
There is no registration fee to attend the conference, and we are able to charge subsidised rates for refreshments and accommodation. Prices can be viewed here, the programme is available here, and the online shop is here.

Another major sponsor

We are delighted to announce that we have received generous funding from the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada / Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines en Canada.

For details of all our sponsors, please click here.