254 • Introduction to Art Therapy
present in those with vision, to varying degrees. These differences would affect how the
worker would motivate and guide their art making. I made a similar discovery while work-
ing with blind children, of what I called a tactile aesthetic, which turned out to be different
from a visual one. Here is a brief description of a research study my colleagues and I con-
ducted in order to better understand this phenomenon.
Phenomenological Research on a Tactile Aesthetic
Judges who were blind, partially sighted, and sighted were asked to choose their most favor-
ite and least-liked object from a group of wood-scrap sculptures—with equal numbers of
sculptures made by all three populations (DVD 11.3). Our hypothesis was that the chil-
dren would prefer artwork done by someone like themselves, whether they had useful vision
(sighted and partially sighted) or were blind.
We found that artwork preferred by visually impaired (Figure 11.7) or blindfolded
youngsters (Figure 11.8) differed significantly from what was preferred by children using
whatever sight was available to them (Figure 11.9). And it was confirmed at a statistically
significant level.
We also found qualitative similarities and differences in the judges’ verbal and tactile
responses to the sculptures, unrelated to their choices. Most of the youngsters liked sculp-
tures with some variety and a sense of order. The visually impaired tended to label objects
as representational, while the sighted were able to be interested in abstract work. The blind
children also reacted more strongly to certain structural features—particularly projections,
which they disliked, and holes or enclosures, which they liked.
While the sighted judges tended to be fairly objective in their responses, the blind young-
sters were more subjective, often relating things to themselves, reacting with anxiety to
anything perceived as dangerous or unstable. A girl preferred one sculpture to another, for
exa mple, “ because it won’t get k nocked over as easy as t his one. Th i ngs ma ke me ner vous t hat
can fall over easily.” Our work with these blind artists was significantly enhanced by gaining
a better understanding of how their aesthetic responses were different from our own.
Figure 11.7 A blind girl examines a wood sculpture.