Punctum I

When eyesight becomes darkened, reading becomes listening. To others' voices readings. To audiobook voices, or the dark voices of speech synthesis, such as my voice, transforming reading into listening.

Do you hear me?

 

Reading could become touching, writings for fingers. Braille is literally based on the sure instinct of fingertips. A Braille character consists of a square, with up to six raised dots – a cell. By combining points in the cell, you get 63 different combinations, which make up the letters of the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation.

 

This text should actually be read from a Braille book. But only few want or can read Braille today.

Photo Credit: Förbundet Finlands Svenska Synskadade https://www.fss.fi

Punctum II

Semiotician Roland Barthes writes in Camera Lucida about punctum and its opposite studium, as two different ways of experiencing images. He describes punctum as something in the image that 'pierces the viewer' and shoots arrows through the flat image.

 

It is often about a small detail which catches your interest and sticks in your memory, long after the picture in question is out of sight. Punctum is not part of the image, but in the viewer's mind and beyond the photographer's control. It can be difficult to point to the punctum of the image.

 

Once again: It can be difficult to point to the punctum of the image.

 

In retrospect the concept becomes clear and grows in strength. It could be a detail that captivates the viewer and strengthens the image, or acts in the opposite direction, as disturbance, error or deviation. The point that punctures the retina – to be read in Braille. The dots’ shape form a light dark shadow. If every library had a copy of Camera Lucida in Braille, could your fingers resist touching the dots?

Punctum III

Punctum has many meanings. Lacrimal punctum denotes the opening to the upper and lower lacrimal puncta in each eyelid. It is from here the tears dip into the lacrimal lake, after being produced in the lacrimal gland above the eye. To you wondering if the blind can cry: you should ask yourself if you can get blind from crying?


Punctum is both what punctures and connects simultaneously: image and gaze, tear and eye, letter and finger.