Anchor of Space

Need + Ingenuity is undefeated.

I recently came across this video and explanation of a series of tree root bridges in Meghalaya, India built by the Khasi people.

The amount of craft that has gone into this - skills and knowledge passed down between at least 3 generations of builders and minders of these elevated walkways! Skills were learned and taught that could be only applicable to this creation. 

When someone addresses a need for information or a solution by fully utilizing the information within the problem, it can reveal a new way of functioning that seems self-evident in hindsight.

Ingenuity has a profound impact on how individuals, particularly those with disabilities, perceive and interact with the world around them. Creative problem-solving and the development of personalized tools can bridge gaps in perception, enabling individuals to gain a deeper understanding of their environment. By leveraging unique strategies and innovative approaches, people can transform challenges into opportunities for exploration and learning.

Below is a description of how someone I know crafted, in my opinion, a brilliant tool to understand space and its inhabitants when other avenues and senses didn’t immediately provide the comfort that comes with being able to identify what is happening around oneself.

Alyssa, a woman who has been blind from birth and is on the autism spectrum, employs a variety of methods to navigate her surroundings, including echolocation. People find ways to perceive and navigate the constant influx of information about their environment using all available tools.

In addition to echolocation and other strategies, Alyssa has ingeniously crafted a tool from common materials that allows her to experience space and its implications more fully. While navigating space is one challenge, understanding boundaries and deriving comfort from knowing where they are is another. Alyssa's tool helps bridge this gap.

Alyssa always carries one, sometimes more, small plastic coffee carafes filled with various objects. Each carafe comes from a toy coffee maker, making it smaller and much more durable than a functioning glass carafe. Within the container are usually 2-3 objects of Alyssa’s choosing and she performs constant checks on the status of all items. These are affectionately known as her “Shakers.” 

These inspections involve emptying the canister, running each object through her fingers, placing different combinations of items back in the carafe, listening to the sounds and feeling the vibrations made in her hands. Often, Alyssa uses her mouth as it’s a more sensitive tool for assessing smoothness and texture.

Alyssa is always in possession of at least one Shaker, they are as vital as a person using a cane to walk - it lets her know where she is.

Objects that complete a Shaker include wooden toy building blocks, large Lego-like blocks, and plastic necklaces most associated with Mardi Gras celebrations, each with its own weight, shape, size, and sound when rattled.

Inspections happen frequently and consistently. More often than not, Alyssa’s presence is initially recognized not by the sound of her voice but by the rattling noise that accompanies her. 

What has always transfixed me the most is how Alyssa fashioned a tool that allows her to experience space in its entirety. 

It's easy to take for granted the ability to have spatial information readily at hand. We can instinctively distinguish between standing upright or being upside down, that’s an internal calculation. However, understanding your place in the context of your surroundings relies entirely on receiving and recognizing external information. The less information received, the harder it is to define your surroundings.

It would come as no surprise that this can at times be very frustrating, particularly when in unfamiliar spaces.

Alyssa crafted a tool—a portion of space with set boundaries, its own rotation of occupants constantly in motion and routinely inspected—allowing her to consume information constantly and mentally record data in realtime.

In unfamiliar spaces, the information that eluded Alyssa was made accessible on a much smaller scale through her bead and block-filled Shaker(s). This tool acs as an anchor in space, made of space, in the palm of Alyssa’s hand—a precision-enabled GPS system specific to a 5.35 cubic-inch space. It allows Alyssa to calculate where objects are in a set amount of space and how they are affecting each other.

I worked with Alyssa in an art program, Soul Studio, housed in a large space with tall ceilings and hard surfaces. Sound could bounce aggressively off each surface, and with the space often filled with people using various tools, the environment could become cacophonous. Understandably, this made it difficult for Alyssa to acclimate, as it was challenging to understand the space's implications, its occupants, and her position within it. This underscored the importance of her Shaker.

All the information Alyssa found difficult to grasp in her environment—how many people were present, where the paths for movement were, where the space ended, whether there were many objects making each sound or one unknown machine making several sounds—could be replicated on a much smaller scale in a way that Alyssa had complete control over and could constantly inspect. Alyssa crafted a way to placate her senses with the information that eluded her.

There is certain information we all need to feel secure in any given moment, perhaps most importantly our position relative to the things and people around us. Alyssa has devised an incredible strategy to constantly understand where objects are in relation to each other and herself. Her Shaker, only slightly larger than a fist, serves as her anchor in space—entirely hers and always within reach.