So I had a couple friends over this morning to attempt to film some page pressing for ‘tactile mind’ the book. It went well along with a little coffee, a little muffin, and a little Toronto rain. It’s still unclear to many people that tactile mind is hand-made, and made at home. Now I just have to figure out how to edit it, and I will post it on my site ASAP. It’s a silent film- but I will try to voice over it for final cut.
Lisa J. Murphy
Tactile Mind Studio Limited.
I was very busy for a while, but just to let everyone know; I just restocked Toronto stores with ‘tactile mind’ the book. You can find it at Northbound Leather, Come As You Are, and This Aint the Rosedale Library. They are all awesome retailers. Contact information for all three are on the main page of my site www.tactilemindbook.com. ‘tactile mind’ the book and individual pages can also be ordered from me directly.
Lisa J. Murphy
tactile mind: A book of nude (3-D) photographs for the blind and vision impaired.
(Because I know a few people out there need convincing-) by Lisa J. Murphy
tactile mind (pages and book ) makes a great gift for any occasion.
This book is handmade by myself from home in about 150 feet of space. My thermoform machine sits inbetween windows for best air-flow, surrounded by tables with the master diagrams and the thermoform plastic tactile copies . (My apartment is currently a disaster area of artwork. shipping supplies, and dirty dishes).
Each book is signed and numbered, and because of the hand-made nature of the project, each book and the individual diagrams are a little bit different – no two are the same.
It’s the self-published indie book that’s received world recognition.There was no financial backing or publishing house in the background. It was merely me, throwing down a few million pounds of wings and even more jugs of draft, to try to make enough money to produce this. At this point, I believe every country in the world has run press regarding ‘tactile mind’, every time I search the internet, there are more articles on this project. Even though I’ve been misquoted about a million times, I am really happy this book has started a dialogue about “equalizing” people with disabilities of any sort. It’s amazing how in this day and age there are still so many generalizations about people with disabilities.We are all human, we all have needs, and wants, and dislikes, and sexual needs are included, but now a days you can even hook-up with kinky MILFS online if you’d like and get all of the casual sex that you could ever want.
A few of my favorite press/interviews (right now, off the top of my head) include: CNN, BBC World Service, “Q”CBC, ABC, Michel Comte, Jay Thomas Show (Howard Stern Network), Rachel Ray, The Daily Telegraph, The National Post, Global T.V., AOL, (and there are so many others!). I have talked to so many amazing journalists from all over the world in the past month, since the story launched with The Toronto Star.
Sighted, vision impaired, or blind – this book (and pages) are great to touch! I’ve watched people grab it and start feeling the pages. And so many people have different opinions of this work. It’s been called everything from erotic and pornographic to others, but if you want to find local sex online you can go online to find this. It’s just a cool book of my photographs, done in a style to make my work more accessible.
Just a couple pictures of me (Lisa J. Murphy) pressing pages of tactile mind at home. For those who have a vision impairment or blindness, or anyone who is simply curious; I will give you a quick description. In the two pictures, I am putting the master copy Braille page of Diagram 13/ Bullet Belt onto the thermoform machine. I am laying the page within the confines of the machine; the base and frame of the thermoform machine is layered in tape to get the best suction. Soon I lay a piece of thermoform plastic on top, press the edges down with the frame, pull the heat source over the diagram and the plastic, the vacuum suction goes – and voila! A 3-D thermoform diagram page.
Sounds really easy. In reality many things can go wrong. The diagram, for starters can break – but that is the worst case scenario. Lately, I’ve had a couple problems in my master pages with a knee cap dislodging , a couple nipples coming loose, a background shredding, hearts moving, and a vagina crumbling. Nothing major, very fixable – just general wear and tear on the images.
Also, my trusty thermoform machine can be a little tempermental. I just give her lots of time to heat up, and some break periods throughout days when I’m printing.
For anyone who’s following my blog post on twitter – please see my (Lisa J. Murphy/tactile mind) blog post at www.tactilemindbook.com for full story. For those with a vision impairment link is on right of screen under “pages”. Click on “updates blog”. This story will be top of page (most recent first). Click on title “A bit about how the media chaos started for TACTILE MIND”. to get full story.
Just going back in time from my last post…occasionally over the past 2 years, I had sent out emails about tactile mind: A book of nude photographs for the blind/vision impaired to various local press telling them to check out my site. Unfortunately shooting white plastic can be difficult, and the pictures on my site had been difficult to read. By sheer luck, about a month ago now, I had managed to take some great pictures of the pages of my book (natural daylight) in front of my kitchen window. Out went the emails again. I received a phone call from Sarah Barmak (who I believe was an intern) at the Toronto Star.
We did a phone interview as I made my way up Spadina Ave., through Chinatown on a busy Friday afternoon, on my way to my restaurant job. Due to over staffing at the restaurant, I received the night off, and went home and emailed Sarah a picture of Diagram 2/ Man in Arctic Mask to illustrate her article.
This article came out 2 days later in the Sunday Toronto Star. I picked up a couple copies of the paper on the way to the gym, and spent the day doing garden work, and chatting with my neighbour.
The next morning I had a early doctors’ appointment and when I got off the subway at the Dufferin station, The Daily Telegraph (London, U.K) called for an interview. The gentleman was very nice and informed me that pictures of my work had made it into all media throughout Britain. OK. I then got on the Dufferin bus and CBS called for a live interview. Nothing like being on public transit and having CBS call. I had to get them to call me back, and hoofed it home.
I’m not really used to writing about myself (Lisa J. Murphy) in the first person, but I have to do my daily blog and so I will try. It’s amazing that no matter how old I am, as soon as I catch the flu, I resort to my 12 year old self.
If you’re just tuning in now to this blog site, i’ll give you a quick catch-up.
tactile mind is a book of nude (3-D) photographs for the blind & vision impaired. I make this book by myself & by hand. It is self-published. I would say it’s a collector’s item, because of the uniqueness of this project and handmade nature of this book. The tactile diagrams are made from photographs I have actually taken (photographs are not shown on my website). This book has received so much attention, because it is being heralded as the first book of nude photographs for the blind and vision impaired in the world. People everywhere have opinions on this work calling it “erotic” , “sensual”, “original art”, “fetish – orientated”, “pornographic!?” and some people don’t like it at all. I think it’s really great that a book created for the blind and vision impaired has resulted in international dialogue.
What can I say today about ‘tactile mind’? Well, I wish I felt well enough to press some pages and bind a couple of books – instead of hanging out in bed, toilet paper roll beside me, waiting for my next sneeze.
Local press is picking up on this work – slowly but surely. Canada with it’s conservative thinking is starting to come around. Amazing, considering the U.S. and European networks picked up the story a couple of weeks ago. But hey,Canada really is a beautiful country to live in, and Toronto itself has pockets of beauty – you just have to know were to find them.
One of my favorite interviews has to be the one for CNN – I had fed-ex’d my book to them the day before and I get a phone call from the producer who says “we’re going to interview you in 10 minutes”. Can anybody guess the number of cigarettes I nervously smoked waiting for that call? wow!
I believe the BBC world service interview was a couple of days before that. I was meant to be on camera – travelling across Toronto to get to an address that didn’t exist – they had booked the interview in Ottawa. So I did the interview in my boyfriend’s truck in the middle of Toronto rush-hour traffic. If anyone out there has to do a high-profile interview where somebody is unhappy with your idea or product, just breathe & try to keep your cool, and do the best you can. Those of you that have listened to this interview will know what I’m talking about…..It can be downloaded from the first page of this site www.tactilemindbook.com or on the wall page of my Facebook site.
I could keep writing, but my coughing fits are killing me.
Until tomorrow, Lisa
A fеw уеаrѕ аgо, people аrоund the world wеrе completely іnсарасіtаtеd by a literary рhеnоmеnоn. I ѕаw rоwѕ of mоthеrѕ reading thе bооk in chaise lounges whіlе thеіr kids ѕрlаѕhеd in ѕwіmmіng pools. I ѕаw people hіdіng thе bооk’ѕ cover bеhіnd оthеr books on the ѕubwау. I mуѕеlf tооk thе bооk оut frоm thе lіbrаrу аnd read іt durіng соllеgе orientation.
Thе bооk wasn’t раrtісulаrlу wеll wrіttеn оr оrіgіnаl – іn fасt, it bеgаn аѕ Twіlіght fan fiction. Stіll, E.L. Jаmеѕ’ Fіftу Shаdеѕ оf Grеу unеаrthеd ѕоmе ache wе’d fоrgоttеn we’d had іn thіѕ age оf constant bоmbаrdmеnt with sexual іmаgеrу. We see ѕеx in movies аnd оn HBO ѕhоwѕ; іt’ѕ fаr mоrе rare thаt we collectively turn to nоvеlѕ. Yеt, wіth Fіftу Shаdеѕ of Grеу, that’s еxасtlу whаt hарреnеd. The book еnсоurаgеd реорlе tо be swept аwау into an еrоtіс world thаt wаѕ partly соmроѕеd by thеіr оwn іmаgіnаtіоn.
But James’ trіlоgу is far from thе оnlу еrоtіс literature wоrth rеаdіng. Wіth their ѕtunnіng lаnguаgе and сrеаtіvе рrеmіѕеѕ, еасh of thеѕе bооkѕ will ѕtrеtсh уоur соnсерtіоn оf ѕеnѕuаlіtу аnd sexuality, it will definitely make you want to join a Free Live Sex Cam. Even if you want some really hot fun with locals then you can get that with adult dating as there are women and men looking for sex online right now!
Some people like it, some people dislike it – most people haven’t looked at my website or seen/felt the 3-D book. It’s amazing the impact media has on people’s opinions.
People are calling it “original”, “artistic”, “erotic”, “sensual”, “fetish-orientated”, & “pornographic”. People everywhere are entitled to their opinions, and have made them…..
Different media outlets or blog posts are calling it expensive. These people have not visited my website, or emailed me to ask me questions. As a 1 person publishing house, producing my own work, I do sell individual pages of ‘tactile mind’, because I know not everyone can afford the complete book. I have worked multiple waitressing and minimum wage jobs in the past couple of years to pay for this work. It is incredibly expensive and time consuming to create. ‘tactile mind’ is self-published and handmade. It has been “out” since 2008, and I have been dragging it around in plastic containers to erotic art fairs and galleries.
‘tactile mind’ is a cool book of my nude photographs for the vision impaired and blind to read, period.
Lisa worked with professional Braillist(s) who used grade-one Braille, so (she felt) the work could be easily understood by a wider audience. This Braille is written letter by letter, so even a sighted person could download the Braille alphabet off the computer and stumble through the descriptions of the photographs. The Braille accompanying ‘tactile mind’ is in (American) English, which is the standard for North America.
The Braille describes the photograph – how it is cropped, the mask, if the subject is turned to the side, etc. Generally when a blind reader ‘sees’ a tactile diagram of a person, the diagram is head to feet, facing forward. The Braille description given in ‘tactile mind’ helps guide the reader through the photographs for a better understanding.
