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GARDEN FOR A BLIND POTTER

Navigational fountains and a bird garden – sounds to guide a blind artist back to his home. Developed by Kallmyer and Furniture Music Studio.

In early 2023, KnowHow a Los Angeles-based architecture studio invited me to visit Don Katz at his new home in West Hollywood. Don is known as the Blind Potter, and is without sight. He is a person who is in his body – with a rich and varied sensory understanding of his environment – but was sometimes disoriented in his new home, unable to locate it from the street.

The fountain marks the entrance of his home – a piece of sonic wayfinding for the blind and sighted alike. It can be tuned by placing objects in the basin, which will raise and lower the pitch of the fountain. As a ceramicist, Don and I discussed adding pottery, ceramic offcasts, found tiles, and sculptural objects that he develops over time. In this way, the fountain is an evolving collaboration. Each added object changes the tone and timbre – the frequency and amplitude of the fountain – creating a personal fingerprint to the sound he now calls home.

The garden is bird-friendly, biodiverse, and rich in aromatic native plants. Planted to support bird life and bird song in mid-city – informed by conversations with my keen brethren at Morami, Terremoto, and the Theodore Payne Foundation.

This project was recently celebrated in the New York Times (Design Issue, Fall 2024)

This garden is organized by scent. Aromatic plants identify parts of the home by specific aromatic plants. The front garden smells of California Sagebrush, AKA ‘Cowboy Cologne’ while the rear garden is planted with the heady scent of lavender, jasmine, and rosemary. Each door is marked by a white sage – resinous and sacred – dank and the tasty scent of summer in LA. All of these elements aim to act as wayfinding and identifying markers for Don, who experiences the world through touch, scent, sound, and memory.