Have you ever tried to deliberately close your eyes and let the other person who’s holding your hand lead the way? Even though the experience can be quite scary – you do start to realize the often neglected sensations starting to kick in. May it be the noise from the traffic lights; the breeze that hits your face when someone walks past you; or the smell from that corner food store which you were always too busy to even get a whole breath of; everything that used to be ‘flat’ becomes dimensional, and starts to engulf your mind when your vision is taken away.
Imagine how it would be like if you were to experience a busy city like Central with your eyes completely closed.
Beyond Vision Projects is a “social enterprise that enhances the quality of life for the visually impaired (VI) and the elderly with low vision, focusing on improving social inclusiveness, accessibility and employment opportunities through Tactile-Audio Interaction System (TAIS) services.” What this means is that they provide presentations of paintings, photographs, graphics, architecture and scenery with other multidimensional perspectives, namely with touch and sound. They believe that art and culture are for all of us and that TAIS is able to empower those with a compromised vision to engage in the process of mental image-building.
In hands with Hongkong Land, they are launching ‘Central Beyond Vision’, a tactile-audio art exhibition which allows both the sighted and the visually impaired to enjoy and experience iconic architectures in Central. A series of ‘Touchable Self-portrait Drawing Workshops’ will also happen during the exhibition period, where participants get to learn how to draw “with their own inner voice and imagination and build mental images through the sense of touch” without seeing at all. This free-of-charge workshop will then transform the drawings into touchable portraits for the participants to take home.
Central Beyond Vision
www.hkland.com
Mar 20- Apr 8, 2018
The Rotunda, Exchange Square
