Sunday, November 29, 2009

Blind Rothko Viewers?



Today I saw this sign outside the Rothko Room in the Phillips Collection. The sign says PLEASE LIMIT VISITORS TO THE ROTHKO ROOM TO EIGHT, followed by a Braille translation underneath. A few questions arise. How is a blind person even supposed to view these paintings? Is this some type of modernist joke?

Below, a wider view of the sign reveals the (non-informative, entirely color-based) titles of the paintings inside. No Braille translations underneath.



P.S. The "extra" dot before each Braille word indicates capital letters.

1 comment:

  1. This is a typical example of how little care is sometimes given to translation. I am sure that this museum just wanted to show the public that they do care about people with disabilities (blind people, in this case) even though they do not even think about what they are doing.

    The most important thing is to always make sure that a professional translation agency stands behind, especially when dealing with something like Braille translation, so that we can be advised about what we want to do and if it can actually make sense.

    ReplyDelete