Taxi Hand Signs

lingo guides for sighted and blind people by Susan Woolf. MATHABO

Time Live, SA Art Times: Big Apple to see SA's taxi signals for the blind

Monday 25: Editor's Choice: Timeslive: Big Apple to see SA's taxi signals for the blind
2011-07-25

South Africa's unique taxi hand signals have gone to New York. A collection of work by artist Susan Woolf, inspired by the gestures, is on exhibition at the prestigious Museum of Modern Art….

http://www.arttimes.co.za/news_read.php?news_id=4579

From: http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/2011/07/24/big-apple-to-see-sa-s-taxi-signals-for-the-blind

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Artist Susan Woolf with the stamp collection of tactile shapes inspired by hand signals used by taxi commuters in Gauteng Picture: RAYMOND PRESTON

Taxi Hand Signs at Talk To Me exhibition opening at the MoMA in New York

Hello friends, family and colleagues,

I am so grateful to all of you who from inception have supported me with my art, communicated with me and shared in the anticipation of the MoMA exhibit. Here is the update so many of you have asked for!

Warmest regards,

Su

Nothing could have prepared me for the opening night of Talk To Me at the MoMA in New York. What an utterly fantastic ground breaking, stunning exhibition! There were literally thousands of people inside the exhibition at the opening, interacting with different exhibits on the show. Many of the exhibits are equipped with headphones that allow visitors to participate in an interactive experience, such as a video giving a history or overview of the project. This was the case with my Taxi Hand Signs: Shape Lingo for Blind People and Touch Teasers.

The exhibit itself is quite overwhelming. I am truly honoured to be amongst many of the artists and inventors who are doing such extraordinary things in the world! At the heart of Talk to Me is communication. In this spirit the artists are encouraged to get to know fellow participants in different ways on the Talk to Me website. It’s quite daunting to know that over 30 000 people visit the exhibition daily and will do so until 7 November! Talk to Me is advertised all over New York, on building facades and billboards. Two weeks after the opening over 45 million hits had already been posted to the Talk to Me website! And ‘talk’ about hard copy, the catalogue is exquisite!  

To give you a taste of what it is like, you can visit the following links:

MoMA | Talk to Me | Taxi Hand Sign Shape Lingo for Blind People

http://moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/talktome/categories/

The Shape Lingo for Blind People can be found in the Talk To Me category Double Entendre.

Now that I have returned to South Africa, my work can be seen in a new local exhibition with The Taxi Hand Signs, Shape Language for Blind People. This is an interactive, experiential exhibition called Dialogue in the Dark, on show at Sci-Bono in New Town, Johannesburg. Coincidently, it runs concurrent to the MoMA exhibition Talk To Me.

For the rest of this year, I am focusing on completing my thesis. I am glad to finally have time to give it my complete attention and look forward to making it the best it can be.

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A Billboard on the New York streets

Touch Teasers selected for 'Talk to Me' at MoMA, New York

Touch Teasers is a multiple of 11 tactile graphics; a series of
white-on-white braille prints of taxi hand signs set behind anti-reflective
glass.

This multiple is a contradiction in terms. Covering the tactile taxi hand
sign shapes with glass elicits different responses: The blind person cannot
interpret the signs because they are not tactile. The sighted person is
'blind' to these signs as they are coded, have not been learned and are
difficult to see. There may be a temptation to feel the shapes, which of
course is not possible.