My process for casting brailled bowls was not perfect; in fact, detached dots were a problem in as high as an estimated 74% of all casts. The missing dots corrupt the message, making the braille say something other than what was intended.
I claim that this kind of corruption is unlike anything we are used to seeing: Damaged braille introduces errors that are different in kind from those caused by mistranslation, faulty spelling, typos, OCR errors, PDF conversion, autocorrect, or predictive input.
By attempting to transcribe the damaged braille back to writing (an idea is not dissimilar to what 32 Pigeons had done a year ago in our installation Blind Reading), I aim to highlight the foreignness of the kind of corruption that can be caused by damaged braille.
Epic Blue is the name of the studio glaze that I put on the earthenware pieces among these rejects — rejects which arguably are still functional. And I chose this glaze because I feel that it is sad if a message is being corrupted but nobody is going to fix it, and it would be epic sadness if no one has probably ever studied how messages can be corrupted this particular way and will probably never study such messages.
| Date code | Work | Trimmed | Handbuilt | Glazed | Slips & glazes | Status | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OCAD K !ahowing ebaoaC💩 /@’ch💩 a💩 💩aaa h (⌀ 5″, 300 mL). Mid-fire casting slip, underglaze and glazes. Fired to cone 6.
| Jet Black (underglaze), Burlington Clear, Tea Dust, Blue Me Away | Fired | |||||
OCAD K Throwing Club, written horizontally (⌀ 5½″). Low-fire casting slip, underglaze and glazes. Fired to cone 04.
| Jet Black (underglaze), Duncan Envision IN1001 Clear, Epic Blue | Finished | |||||
…n …pt💩 …w… …n t …tch …horse. … zerca …overb, written vertically (⌀ 5½″). Low-fire casting slip.
| Bisqued | ||||||
OCAD K Throwing Club, written horizontally (⌀ 5½″). Low-fire casting slip, underglaze and glazes. Fired to cone 04.
| Jet Black (underglaze), Duncan Envision IN1001 Clear, Epic Blue | Finished | |||||
OCAD K[nowledge] The a ’j[ust] ach, written horizontally (⌀ 5½″). Low-fire casting slip, underglaze and glazes. Fired to cone 04.
| Jet Black (underglaze), Duncan Envision IN1001 Clear, Epic Blue | Finished | |||||
OCAD K Throwing Club, written horizontally (⌀ 5½″). Low-fire casting slip, underglaze and glazes. Fired to cone 04.
| Jet Black (underglaze), Duncan Envision IN1001 Clear, Epic Blue | Finished | |||||
An emp,a bowl can’t catch a horse, brailled and written horizontally (⌀ 5½″). Low-fire casting slip, underglaze and glazes. Fired to cone 04.
| Jet Black (underglaze), Duncan Envision IN1001 Clear, Epic Blue | Finished | |||||
The empty bowl makes the most noiia, brailled and written horizontally (⌀ 5½″). Low-fire casting slip, underglaze and glazes. Fired to cone 04.
| Jet Black (underglaze), Duncan Envision IN1001 Clear, Epic Blue | Finished |
