seeing with our fingers

Feely bags help us hone our observation, memory and imagination. Each table received an object inside of a plain canvas bag. Using our fingers like our eyes, we took turns describing what we felt - engaging touch as the first point of contact - without the mediation of our vision.
Description before interpretation. As each person put their hand in the bag and began to explore and articulate their experience of the object, the rest of the group listened and then wrote down what their neighbour had said. Research notes to help us imagine the contents of the bag.
Once we had exhausted text based possibilities, the bag was set in the middle of the table, and we drew what we felt inside. If we need more information, we could touch it again and translating our impressions with lines of black ink.


When our drawings were finished, we finally revealed the object. Then we toured the room, and read each other's work.