![Picture shows the illustrated orange paper cover of a booklet. The illustration fills most of the cover and shows a three-quarter length engraved portrait of a man, presumably John Metcalfe. The man stands, his eyes closed, and faces slightly away from the viewer. He holds a staff in his right hand. Both of his arms are bent at the elbow, in an L-shape, and rest at the side of his body. He is attired in 18th-century clothing. He wears a dark-colored slightly floppy hat, a white cravat, and a dark-colored vest under a dark-colored overcoat with wide collars and wide hip pockets. Engraved lines resembling scratch marks give the man’s hat and clothing texture. In the far left background is a cluster of trees. Above the man are multiple rows of horizontal parallel lines with two unlined areas forming the shapes of clouds. A black-colored stain runs vertically down the center of the image, slightly obscuring the portrait. The title text “Life of John Metcalfe. [next line] Commonly Called [next line] Blind Jack of Knaresborough,” sits above the illustration and in the upper edge of the cover. Below the illustration is the text of the imprint: Otley: [next line] Printed by William Walker. [next line] Sold by the Bookseller. A rectangular-shaped border comprised of inter-twirled lines surrounds the illustration, title and imprint. [End of description]](https://commontouch.librarycompany.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/o-englife-log-3320-1-2-o-c-638x1030.jpg "Life of John Metcalfe. : Commonly called Blind Jack of Knaresborough. Otley: Printed by William Walker, ca. 1845. Booklet cover.")
![Picture shows a pencil sketch titled “Front View” on an 8 1/2 x 11 in. piece of white paper with faint, vertical ruled black lines. In the center of the page is a tall, vertical rectangle. A measurement line labeled “20 [in.]” runs horizontally along the inside bottom edge of the rectangle. A long measurement line runs vertically along the right side of the rectangle. The line is divided into four segments and labeled, in the right, from bottom to top: “28 [in.]”; “30 [in.]”; “5 [in.]”; “20 [in.].” The rectangle is divided into four segments. The segments are labeled, in the left, from bottom to top: “Olfactometer”; “Hood”; “Fan”; “Vent.” A two-dimensional view of a table cuts across the lower one-third of the rectangle. A measurement line labeled “6’” runs horizontally below the illustration. A measurement line labeled “7’” runs vertically to the right of the illustration. [End of description]](https://commontouch.librarycompany.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Olfactometer-design_CT-2-796x1030.jpg "Sketch for the enclosure for the olfactometer, 2015.")
As the one year mark has come and gone for Common Touch, time seems to have flown by as the April 4, 2016 opening date for the exhibition fast approaches. Teresa Jaynes’s art works are beginning to be realized after months of research at the Library Company, New York Institute for Special Education, and Perkins Institution. Sketches, drawings, and prototypes are being transformed into a tactile map with a three-dimensional key showing the travels of the 19th-century English blind surveyor John Metcalfe; laser-cut wooden letters after the penmanship of the previously blogged about Jenny Partridge; and an olfactometer that will immerse visitors into a cocoon of sound and scent relaying a micro-narrative of the life of Victorian blind musician Thomas Greene Bethune. Wall art, tactile facsimiles, and geometric sculptures will also be discovered in the exhibition conceived around the themes of orientation and perception. Jaynes’s multi-sensory installations will also invite exhibition patrons to explore the nature of various dichotomies, including interior and exterior; public and private; masculine and feminine; and the sighted and the unsighted.
Stay tuned…
Erika Piola
Associate Curator, Prints and Photographs
Co-Director, VCP at LCP
![Picture depicts the black and white cover of Ann Millett Gallant’s book “The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art.” The illustration is a reproduction of Joel Peter Witkin’s 2003 photograph “First Casting for Milo.” The image shows a female model with shortened arms, standing, her skin painted white to resemble marble. She wears a white-powdered wig of wavy hair styled into a low bun; a white, structured bra; and a grey, heavily wrinkled large piece of fabric that is bunched and cinched at her waist to create a floor-length skirt. Her head is turned in profile to the viewer’s left. Her right arm, shortened just below the elbow, rests slightly away from the right side of her body. Her left arm, shortened above the wrist, extends from her left side and rests on the top of a pole. A branch with flowers emerges from the pole. She stands on a marble pedestal. The top is barely discernible. A small dog stands at an angle beside her, at her feet, and to the viewer’s left on the pedestal. The pointy-eared, squat dog is completely white except for black patches around his eyes and his left ear. The dog looks to the viewer’s left. In the upper left, across from the model’s right shoulder is a disembodied hand holding a film director’s clapboard upside down. Grey and silver splotches create a spectral background. In the top left corner, is the text: The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art. Above the head of the dog and in the center-left edge of the cover is the text: Ann Millett Gallant. [end of description]](https://commontouch.librarycompany.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Witkin-first-casting.bmp)
![Thomas Greene Bethune, known as Blind Tom, ca. 1870. Black & white photograph. 4 x 2.5 in. Picture depicts the carte-de-visite portrait photograph of musician Thomas Greene Bethune, later Wiggins, known as Blind Tom. Shows the young African American man from his waist up, his body slightly angled to the viewer’s right. His tightly curled hair is shortly cropped. His eyes are closed. He wears a white shirt with a turned down collar. Under the collar is a dark cross tie. He also wears a dark jacket with wide notch lapels, several creases around the waist, and the top button fastened. The photograph is framed within a rectangular shape printed with a thick gold line surrounded by a thin black line. The frame is on light-colored paper. The top edge of the frame is slightly rounded. Hand written text below the portrait reads: “Blind Tom” [End of description]](https://commontouch.librarycompany.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Thomas-Greene-Bethune-Blind-Tom-celebrities-album-80x80.jpg)