March 29, 2018 - 16:16
I'm happily surprised by how much overlap there is between my courses this semester, especially as I am not taking only art history courses. Last week in my Topics in Film Studies course, we discussed Virtual Reality (VR). We used the very accessible platform of Google Cardboard (available here) and the WITHIN app (free for iPhones on the App Store). Ou
ColinArt, La Burthe, and Middleton + Spinney created Notes On Blindness in 2016. The description is as follows:
"After losing his sight in 1983, John Hull began to record an audio diary documenting his discovery of ‘a world beyond sight’. Hull's original recordings form the basis of this beautifully animated documentary, which uses 360° video and binaural sound to explore the world of the blind."
A "flattie" version is available to view here: https://www.with.in/watch/notes-on-blindness/
Viewing this was an incredibly immersive. It was different than simply closing my eyes; there were waves of vision and non-vision and my sight fluctuated. I feel like this humanized an elusive disability by eliminating the mythic experienece of what being blind truly feels like.