A Conversation in Celebration of The Moon Reader

Hear the conversation: click here for the YouTube video

VCP at LCP was delighted to welcome nearly 100 guests to the opening on September 23, 2014 for artist Teresa Jaynes’s The Moon Reader. The Moon Reader, created with the assistance of Katherine Allen, a visually-impaired accessibility consultant, is amultimedia installation on display in the Logan Room at the Library through October 10, 2014 that invites participants to learn to read Moon, a raised-letter writing system for the blind invented by blind educator William Moon in 1845.

The Moon Reader is a boxed set of two handmade books, one printed in Moon type and one in Braille and large print. Modeled after 19th-century primers, the books are based on research in the Library Company’s Michael Zinman Collection of Printing for the Blind. Beginning with an exercise to learn Moon, readers deepen their involvement with the writing system through a series of lessons inspired by textbooks in the Zinman Collection. An audio recording and touch screen with access to the Moon Reader Facebook page, as well as historical Moon-type printed materials from the Library’s holdings enable visitors to further interact with the installation.

To celebrate the installation, Jaynes led a conversation with Allen and her other visually- impaired project advisors educator Edery Herrera and technology expert Suzanne Erb that elucidated their experiences in a visually-centric society. Queries related to perception and the senses led to personal stories from Allen about “clomping” her feet to feel her way on hikes and from Herrera about his realization of the practicality of a cane after misjudging the direction of sounds from a construction site outside his home. In response to a question about the meaning of color, Erb, also a vocalist described how she used her musical background to create harmonies and not dissonance in the color choices of her clothing. The conversation also included Jaynes reflecting upon the quotes she chose for the Reader, including “Darkness to the blind has no terrors” that provided a further context to the poignant, and often humorous conversation.

A three-set, limited edition, The Moon Reader will also be on display at the Magill Library at Haverford College and the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia through October 27, 2014.