Saturday, September 19, 2020

ProTactile Connections to the World by Oscar Chacon

The following e-mail is from a listserv that I am humbled to be part of, shared in its entirety with permission from the author. In this post, my musings follow after Oscar's thoughts. 
-Heather Withrow, September 19, 2020

From: Oscar Chacon
Date: March 16, 2019
Subject: PT Connections to the World

PT squeeze ‘hi’ to you, family and friends,

ProTactile Connections to the World (OH MY!)

I had been going to Chicago Loop public library by L Train for a while. As I traveled and navigated through the city, I came to realize there are three PT major connections to the world. We are actually living in the tactile world. There are auditory and visual worlds out there meshed to this world. I have access to the visual world in low resolution stimulations. But in the tactile world I will write about is where my stimulations are high resolution. So these connections that I will describe had given me fascinating thoughts and insights to live in this amazing historic moment as a DeafBlind individual.

Before I go on, I want to define one term beforehand: background information (info for short.) I’ll be describing tactile world as if I assume you the reader is following me in tactile world. So that means some of us will have additional info in addition to tactile info as they move through the world. These types of info are what I call background info in this essay. Sometimes I describe these info, other times I don’t.

PT Connection #1: Direct tactile interactions.

I wake up to the tactile world in the morning, feeling my blankets and sheets surrounding me. I feel for how to remove these and do so. I feel my body moving off the bed. I walk with my feetwear or without, feeling texture and other tactile info on the sole of my feet. I feel different things put in the space I wake up in. I may or may not change any spaces I will travel through. I can feel with tactile sense if I am designing a room. For example, if I had a room for PT users to converge for various discussions, I may design with small tables with three chairs in front of them against the wall spaced few feet from each other, around the room. Then if there is enough space to feel too spacious to me, I will add central table-three chairs cluster(s). Then add rugs of varying designs that fix my position with ease. I feel details as I wash dishes. Many more examples of direct tactile experiences with loaded information in themselves (background info is always given for various individuals.)

First connection is direct tactile info when you touch anything.

PT Connection #2: Tactile Interfaces with Tools

I like feeling various bumps, motions, wheeling along, and many other sensations as I walk with my white cane (a tool). I may have some visual background info as I walk in the public. Still, these sensations are full of info if I want to derive patterns needed. Braille displays encodes English language in tactile dots. Plus they come with their own buttons that I feel and learn their functions. The train is a tool even if I may have the background info of watching scenery pass by. I still am fascinated by various bumps, motions, rolling of body, etc because I realize I can get a chosen pattern I need. It doesn’t matter what it is: we can get secondary tactile information from things. One thng I am dreaming is in relating to elevators. I know it have Braille numbers/letter to push the button labeled so. I will love it if the elevator also have vibrator and maybe refreshable Braille display indicating floor numbers.

Having tools giving me tactile information is the second connection.

PT Connection #3: ProTactile Languages

DeafBlind people including me had came together and had these first two connections to the tactile world. We also have the feeling of reciprocity between us. These inspired us to express ourselves in interactions by touching and stimulations related to touch which lead to PT languages flourishing in various places.

ProTactile was an idea presented and practiced by DeafBlind people starting in Seattle in 2007 then spreading ever since. It started with the idea that we need to be extra supportive of touch in the prevailing culture in order to inspire awareness in DB individuals to touch their world more. Now we are living in the tactile world with much more opportunities for DeafBlind people.

I was struck by these three connections to the tactile world. A world awaiting more explorations! And high resolution!

Any more PT connections you can think of or your own high resolution tactile exploration experience? Please add your thoughts!

--
[End of e-mail]



My Thoughts on Oscar's Experiences


Oh yes! Oscar's e-mail and his use of "high resolution tactile exploration" was a massive buzz-word for me for the reasons shared in my September 15, 2020 post on Tactile Resolution and Attention. Oscar's perspective on resolution was quality of information that came in through his senses, whether directly, or through secondary, indirect ways. I never thought of resolution that way until Oscar's version was associated with it being rich in information. This is different from my original, personal definition of "resolution" by the number of nerves through our tactile sense.

Oscar's thoughts on direct contact reminded me of 1st generation images (here we go, more graphic design talk!); and his thoughts on secondary tactile information is comparable to 2nd generation images. Basically 1st generation images are original media (a.k.a. direct contact) while a 2nd generation image is a photocopy of the original. Taking a picture of a picture of a picture; or a copy of an original documents' copy... with each level further away from the original, the information quality degrades but you are still somehow getting information. Just like Jude Nicholas (2010) shared, areas of skin with less nerve density still contributes information to the brain. I also see a connection with the first principle of ProTactile (granda & Nuccio, n.d) which focuses on "contact space"--- when more body surface areas (arms, leg, back, etc.) on the receiver are being used there are more opportunities, or wider bandwidth, for information to flow in.

More musings on this to come!

References


granda, a. & Nuccio, J. (n.d.) Protactile Principles. Text within the body of an e-mail received August 3, 2020 via Introduction to Protactile Theory (course by John Lee Clark).

Nicholas, J. (2010). From active touch to tactile communication--- what’s tactile cognition got to do with it? The Danish Resource Centre on Congenital Deafblindness.


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