Sensitiva

Abstract

This project, called Sensitiva, is inspired by a personal concern regarding vision: a certain need to understand how visuality works in blindness. The search for an answer to this question begins with understanding that seeing does not just depend on the sense of sight. The biological and sensitive processes a blind person uses to perceive and move along the world around them are as complex as human nature itself. This lead me to ask myself if it is possible to represent such complexity in order to encourage the non-blind to understand that darkness world a little more. The proposal was designed at two moments, starting from the development of a narrative text, where I bring a character to life and tell a piece of my own story exploring a series of ideas, deductions, questions and interpretations made by a couple of a seeing man and a blind woman. This story aims to transfer the reader into the world of blindness from the standpoint of a blind person. The second moment entails an immersive and interactive exhibition where the spectator is embedded in a dark room. First, they come across an illuminated alphabetic Braille device made from acrylic on a table; then, when interacting with its system, a LED light mechanism reflecting a swarm-shaped colored dots to simulate neuronal synapses activates. This system intends for the users to find the connection of "being able to see with their fingers", allowing them to experientially understand and come closer to a clearer notion involved in what image construction entails - from its minimal expression: a point of light - and the interaction the body keeps with its environment