the first proposal

 

TACTILE REVERENCE: BRAILLE, GEOMETRY, AND THE SYNTAX OF THE SACRED

PROPOSAL FOR THE NCA TRIENNALE 2025

 

 

Artist: Shazia Mirza

Artist’s Support Assistant: Syed Khizar Hussain Shah

Medium: Ceramic clays, slip casting, painting, some sprigging work, hand-building, traditional glaze techniques, some CNC

Format: Two sculptural and spatial ceramic series

Project Webspace: https://ghayabnama.blogspot.com

 

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

This project proposes a formally and conceptually rigorous exploration of non-visual sacred ornamentation through the unprecedented integration of Braille, Islamic arabesque, and modular geometry within contemporary ceramic practice.

 

Drawing from both digital and traditional fabrication systems, it expands the lexicon of Islamic ornament beyond visual reception into the realm of tactile literacy and embodied epistemologies. 

Rooted in classical Islamic aesthetics, particularly arabesque and the Rumi motif, as well as the modern logic of Braille, the project positions itself as a semantically encrypted design system, where ornament encodes presence, absence, invocation, circular repetition,and memory.

 

Braille, usually marginalized as a utilitarian accessibility tool, is here elevated to the status of primary script. It is not imposed upon ornament but organically woven within it, forming a Braille-arabesque grammar that redefines Islamic surface logic as haptic, rhythmic, and philosophical. 

 

The project was conceived after the Triennale call, so the proposal submission includes only elementary process drawings that demonstrate four distinct systems for integrating Braille with Islamic ornament, and some unfired ceramic objects that test same ideas over real material. 

These in-progress drawings and material studies show the conceptual discipline behind the tactile logic. Rather than aesthetic solution, they serve as systemic tests, evidencing the project’s grounding in research-based design thinking.

 

 

PROCESS CHRONOLOGY: FROM FRAGMENT TO FORM

This project began not with a design but with a sentence.

When the NCA Triennale open call was released, I was moved by its final lines:

“Hinging onto another, I am the fragment that fulfils the existence of the matrix of the rest. I am the missing piece.”

Those words hit something personal,combined with my current reading of the circular, contemplative writing of Nobel Laureate John Fosse, I began to conceptualize sacred form and absence. I began sketching a three-dimensional ceramic structure that would physically embody circularity; something fragmented yet whole, where the Triennale sentence could loop across its edges like a whispered invocation.

 

Stage 1: From Text to Tactile Code

Initially, I worked on folded origami-like ceramic structures with connected edges inscribed with English text from the Triennale statement. But almost immediately, I resisted direct inscription. I have had a Braille tattoo for 13 years, and that’s when the idea struck: what if this sacred sentence wasn’t written but encoded?
I was already envisioning geometries with ridged, embossed linear edges. Switching to Braille became instinctive. The current proposal was born from that pivot, within the first three days of the call announcement.

 

Stage 2: Deepening the Epistemology

The next four to five days were spent revisiting the formal principles behind Islamic ornament and spatial pattern construction. I reread sections of books I had previously taught during my undergraduate course “Ornament and Us”, this time with new eyes. I wanted to find out whether Islamic ornament had historically engaged other systems of epistemology besides script and geometry—and whether my approach with Braille could sit within or against that tradition.

 

Stage 3: Integration Systems

I began drafting multiple systems of Braille-ornament integration, mapping how dot structures could be absorbed, translated, or restructured into arabesque and geometric logics. The sketches from this stage document a highly structured ideation process. They show not aesthetic decisions, but grammatical proposals—ways in which language might fuse with ornament while respecting both.

 

Stage 4: Material Trials (Current Stage)

I am now entering a phase where I will start producing shard-like ceramic samples with painted or embossed surfaces, testing how these integrations actually function on physical form. This stage will include new sketches as well as small-scale glazed or painted ceramics, functioning as test surfaces.

 

Stage 5: Aesthetic Resolution (Future Stage)

This is where the design choices will finally take shape. But until the structural integration systems have proven themselves materially and tactically, I am withholding all aesthetic decisions.
This is crucial: not even I know yet how the final pieces will look. I have chosen to let form follow code—to delay visual resolution until the tactile syntax has earned its place.

 

 

SERIES BREAKDOWN

 

Based on the exploratory sketches and models submitted, the following objects will be part of the final submission to Triennale.

 

Set I: Four System Plates. As Visible Modes of Fusion

 

This set comprises four ceramic plates, each demonstrating a unique system of integrating Braille with Islamic ornamental forms.

Braille being a system with very rigid directional placement of dots in particular spatial orientation creates a difficult challenge when embedded into existing ornamentation systems. The unusual formal constraint that Braille doesn’t have any straight or curvy lines favors only limited spatial solutions. So far, I’ve identified several approaches for embedding Braille into or alongside visual surface ornamentation. These methods may also translate, at least partially, into the tactile realm, though each brings its own set of technical and conceptual challenges that will need further exploration. Here are the primary strategies:

 

1. Spatial Separation with Optional Connectivity
   Design ornamentation where Braille and visual motifs exist in separate spatial zones. These can either be interwoven or remain disconnected. In this model, a sighted person perceives both systems visually, while a blind user engages only with the Braille sections. The two layers may or may not reference each other formally.

A ceramic display plate (10–12-inch diameter) will show one example of this method.

 

2. Braille Concealed Under Rich Ornamentation
   Apply Braille text across the surface as needed, and then overlay it with dense, intricate ornamentation. This conceals the Braille from immediate view but allows both blind and sighted users to experience the piece as a singular, richly textured object—each accessing different dimensions of meaning and form.

A ceramic display plate (10–12-inch diameter) will show one example of this method.

 

3. Integrated Flow with Protruding Linework
   Develop islimi or other ornamental systems that weave Braille and visual elements into a shared design. Include embossed linear motifs or tactile similes alongside the Braille to guide the hand along the visual rhythm. This creates a unified aesthetic and tactile experience for both blind and sighted audiences.

A ceramic display plate (10–12-inch diameter) will show one example of this method.

 

4. Unified Tactile-Visual Language
   The strategy that most strongly interests me involves constructing an entirely tactile composition using both Braille and embossed linework. The surface is then painted, making every element simultaneously visible and legible, merging the acts of seeing and reading into one shared sensory field. 

This dual-access approach holds the most creative potential for me, as it allows full freedom to explore both two-dimensional and three-dimensional ornamental forms with intentionality and precision.

Crucially, this method offers a way to bypass one of Braille’s core constraints, its linearity. By embedding Braille into curved or flowing arabesque lines, I hope to experiment with more organic layouts. While this requires rigorous testing with blind readers, I am beginning this exploration with a few short names of Allah, which do not necessarily require a strict linear sequence. This choice gives me room to investigate how Braille might evolve into an ornamental system that shares the graceful curvature of Islamic arabesque, accessible to both touch and sight,and to people without sight.

That said, I am aware that such a system is best suited for mobile or handheld surfaces—such as vessels, small sculptures, or modular tiles—rather than fixed architectural surfaces like walls. As a first step in this direction, I’ve begun developing a specific Rumi motif, currently in its early sketch phase, titled Anaar Rumi (Please read addendum explaining the nature of Anaar Rumi). 

A geometrically precise version will follow in preparation for exhibition. It is too early to decide how I will show this, but this definitely will be exhibited on one or another small form.

 

These plates/objects act as tactile grammars—conceptual lexicons that allow viewers to understand the underlying logic guiding the rest of the project.

 

Set II : Ayaat Frieze . Scripture for the Hand

 

This is a 2.5-inch-wide ( up to 20 feet long) ceramic frieze designed to run horizontally at 2.5 feet from the floor along walls in mosques, libraries, or educational spaces. Its multiple surface plains will carry a combination of:

 

a)     Braille Quranic verses (Surah Al Hashr, Ayat 24-29), rendered in high-relief Arabic Braille for direct touch reading, and

b)    Thin islimi motifs, painted in majolica style, designed to appeal visually without interrupting tactile flow.

 

Crucially, 70-80% of the frieze is left visually bare, emphasizing haptic over visual engagement. The minimalism is intentional: a redistribution of sensory privilege where sacred knowledge is accessed through proximity and touch, not spectacle.

 

 

INNOVATION AND CONTRIBUTION TO DISCOURSE

 

This project intersects:

·      Islamic geometry and basic mysticism

·      Disability aesthetics and sensory epistemology

·      Post-visual Islamic art practice

·      Ceramic-based design research that leans into what might be called a kind of tactile theology, a space where sacred meaning can be felt, not just seen.”

 

It reimagines ornament as a sacred interface, one that does not just embellish but remaps cognition, memory, and touch.

 

By refusing ocular dominance and restoring tactile modes of sacred experience, it extends Islamic ornamental logic into post-visual, post-spectacle futures.

 

RELEVANCE TO THE TRIENNALE THEME

 

In full alignment with Kasb-e-Kamal, this work articulates not just mastery of form but mastery of inquiry. It embodies the intellect of the hand, the silence of remembrance, and the persistence of unseen prayer.

 

It is not an object.It is a scripture you must traverse.

 

 

REFERENCES

 

·      Necipoğlu, Gülru. The Topkapı Scroll: Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture. Getty Publications, 1995.

·      Grabar, Oleg. The Mediation of Ornament. Princeton University Press, 1992.

·      Burckhardt, Titus. Art of Islam: Language and Meaning. World Wisdom, 2009.

·      Broug, Eric. Islamic Geometric Patterns. Thames & Hudson, 2013.

·      Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. Staring: How We Look. Oxford University Press, 2009.

·      Howes, David. The Sensory Studies Manifesto: Tracking the Sensorial Revolution in the Arts and Human Sciences. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022.

·      Ulusoy, Fatih. Re-Generating Continuous Rumi Compositions. ResearchGate, 2018. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328513483_Re-Generating_Continuous_Rumi_Compositions

·      Othman, Achraf, and Oussama El Ghoul. "Unified Arabic Braille Portal by Mada: Innovative digital resource to reduce braille literacy in the Arab region." Nafath, vol. 6, no. 19, Jan. 2022. https://braille.mada.org.qa/braille-patterns/?lang=en

·      Yazar, Nadide Ebru, and Tuğrul Yazar. Re-Generating Continuous Rumî Compositions. Conference Paper, Bridges 2018: Mathematics, Art, Music, Architecture, Education, Culture, Stockholm, Sweden, July 2018. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328513483_Re-Generating_Continuous_Rumi_Compositions