Tactus No.1

Kaunas Biennial, Mykolas Žilinskas Art Gallery, Lithuania
(18 September — 1 January 2016)

Commissioned by Crafts Council UK and developed as part of a Leverhulme Artist Residency at the Printworks Trust
An investigation into direct communicative artworks for the blind and visual impaired. The textile based scores are tactile sound generating surfaces that celebrate the braille music notation system of Louis Braille and the graphic scores of Cornelius Cardew.

Each score is composed of numerous cells of braille and haptic notations that form an overall composition. These cells can be explored by touch (using capacitive sense technology), with the tactile and textural patterns varying based upon the sound material they represent.

The composition does not operate under any particular time signature or linear arrangement allowing for a dynamic recombination of rhythmic and harmonic score material and a flexibility in exploration by touch.

The sound material heard within the composition is derived from studio recordings of scored material composed for the tactile score. When a certain patterning of the tactile score is touched, related sound patterns are triggered from the sound score and heard back instantly across a spatial array of twenty speakers embedded behind the score.

With thanks to;
Leverhulme Foundation,
Havva Basto,
Arron Smith (Artists & Engineers),
Daniel Jones,
Faye McNulty,
Keir Vine,
Simon Hewitt-Jones,
Alex Eichenberger.