Seeing Without Sight
Understanding the blind experience
Understanding the blind experience
Seeing Without Sight is a hands-on exhibition at The California Science Center whose mission is to engage sighted members of the public to understand the alternative ways by which blind and visually-impaired people experience the world. The exhibition aims to teach attendees about the sense of sight and blindess through a combination of information and interactive displays. Hands-on simulations of blindness and experiential blindfolded activities gives viewers empathy for the condions they’ve read about and seen in illustration.
This project is from a concept exhibit on blindness created for an environmental design class.
Thematic storyboard
Weingart Foundation Special Exhibits Gallery site plan. Entrance is in grey at the top and exit is in the Experiential Zone section at the bottom.
Example feature display from the Blindness Zone section of the exhibition
Text on wall reads:
Age-related blindness can be caused by many different conditions related to physiological changes in the structure of the tissues of the eye. These structural changes affect the way that light interacts with the eye and is perceived by the retina, the light-sensitive part of the eye that sends messages to the brain through the optic nerve.
Compare the small diagrams of healthy eyes with the large diagrams of aged eyes and note the structural differences between them:
Cataracts are clouding of the lens of the eye caused by degradation of lens proteins through time and by exposure to environmental factors like UV light.
Glaucoma is the general name for a group of eye diseases that damage the optic nerve, and typically occurs with ocular hypertension, or increased pressure inside the eye.
Macular degeneration is a loss of vision in the center of the visual field because of damage to the retina, either from cellular debris or from abnormal blood vessel growth.
Try looking through the glasses at the stations to the right to see what the landscape might look like with these eye conditions, and compare what you see with the simulations in the bottom of each stations.
Glaucoma is the general name for a group of eye diseases that damage the optic nerve, and typically occurs with ocular hypertension, or increased pressure inside the eye.
Macular degeneration is a loss of vision in the center of the visual field because of damage to the retina, either from cellular debris or from abnormal blood vessel growth.
Try looking through the glasses at the stations to the right to see what the landscape might look like with these eye conditions, and compare what you see with the simulations in the bottom of each stations.
In front of each eyeglass station, the following text appears on the counter surface:
Look the panoramic scene in front of you, and then look at the scene through the glasses. How does what you see through the glasses compare to the simulation thumbnail at the bottom of the scene? Try this exercise at the other stations and experience what these different forms of blindness look like.
Look the panoramic scene in front of you, and then look at the scene through the glasses. How does what you see through the glasses compare to the simulation thumbnail at the bottom of the scene? Try this exercise at the other stations and experience what these different forms of blindness look like.
Fold-out exhibition mailer
Working maquette of title wall/entry
