{"id":733,"date":"2025-01-29T18:18:34","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T18:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lp.8080.dev\/?post_type=article&p=733"},"modified":"2025-03-01T17:11:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T17:11:41","slug":"fields-of-unseen","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/landscapepractice.com\/fr\/research\/fields-of-unseen\/","title":{"rendered":"Fields of Unseen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Marta Tomasiak:<\/em>\u00a0Do blind people have colorful dreams?<\/p>\n <\/h2>\n

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Edyta O\u0142dak:<\/em> It’s definitely difficult for a blind person to say what kind of dreams they have and whether they are colorful. It’s hard to describe fields of blindness if you don’t have a sense of light, when you’ve never experienced what color is. But a person who is visually impaired, who lost their sight but had seen before, can describe fields of blindness. While preparing for the project Wielka Architektura dla Wszystkich Dzieci<\/em> (Great Architecture for All Children)<\/em> and working on a book, I got in touch with Barbara Szyma\u0144ska from the Audiodeskrypcja Foundation, who is blind \u2013 visually impaired \u2013 and is currently involved in implementing audio description as a scientific method to assist blind people. I told her that I wanted this book to be black. I thought that black wouldn’t distract the person receiving the book and would help the reader focus on the proper tactile message. Because this was meant to be a structural, tactile book, more intended for sighted people than blind ones. And then Barbara Szyma\u0144ska advised me against this idea. She explained that it’s not always true that blind people see black. Often they do, but they also have very different fields of blindness. Depending on the weather or mood, the field of blindness changes, even though blind people have no sense of light at all, so it’s not caused by whether it’s bright outside, for example.<\/p>\n

I realized how much of a mistake it would have been to make the book in black, because the color black in this case would have been a repetition of the ongoing stereotype that equates blindness with the color black. Black is not associated with anything positive \u2013 we link it with sadness, depression, and something gloomy. So, I asked Barbara to describe her fields of blindness. It turned out that they are not at all grays or blacks, but whites. When it comes to color, it’s more about a subtle mist that looks like a split light or a rainbow. Or a pale brown, pulsing color with sparkling, iridescent gold particles. These are the colors that most often appear in descriptions \u2013 not only Barbara’s but also those of other people she reached out to, whose descriptions of fields of blindness she shared with me. These graphic representations of fields of blindness were presented in our published book in a flat, two-dimensional form. But usually, a blind person experiences a three-dimensional space, where white is not just a flat sheet of paper; it’s more like a bath in white.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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MT:<\/em> I\u2019m trying to imagine the images, or rather the spaces, that you describe. I\u2019m wondering how the imagination of blind people works. After all, the workshops dealt with something very difficult to imagine \u2013 architecture.<\/p>\n <\/h2>\n

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EO:<\/em> The workshops had a very specific goal: they were meant to be useful and helpful for blind people, to inform and, by showing fields of blindness, to familiarize sighted people with the topic. For blind people, they were meant to bring concrete benefits: to assist with spatial orientation, help understand contemporary architecture and modern buildings, and teach spatial orientation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The truth is, I don\u2019t think anyone can say for sure whether a person who has been blind since birth has a sense of perspective. Of course, there are tactile graphics, excellent educational aids, there are people who work in spatial education, and those who teach blind people what perspective is and how a sighted person perceives the world in perspective. However, no one knows to what extent a person blind from birth understands this. I think that any method that helps bring the theory of perspective, the way we see the world, closer to the blind is good \u2013 especially since it is something completely natural for us (even though we call it a theory). Our actions therefore had a specific goal \u2013 to show spatial vision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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MT:<\/em> However, isn’t translating how blind people perceive space into the way we experience it an oversimplification? Aren’t we impoverishing their way of seeing the world by trying to forcefully show their reality through our eyes, perhaps because deep down we feel that our world is better, fuller?<\/p>\n <\/h2>\n

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EO:<\/em> The absence of discrimination means treating someone who is not fully able-bodied as if they were fully able-bodied. Universal design is about ensuring that people with disabilities and those without are seen as the same users of space. Since we have the ability to see the world, its complexity, and its intricacies, we must, at all costs, give blind people the same opportunity. Starting with simplifications, but always moving in a direction that would help them fully understand the world. Because we live in the same world. The world of blind people is not different; it\u2019s the same as ours, only seen and felt in a different way. And our shared presence in the world gives us the right to show them this world as best as we can.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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MT:<\/em> How did the idea come about? I have the impression that initiatives related to people with disabilities usually come from their environment, directly from them.<\/p>\n <\/h2>\n

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EO:<\/em> Before this project, I didn’t know a single blind person. I wasn’t familiar with the issue at all. Now, we have already taken another step to familiarize society with the problem of blindness and visual impairment, and we also have a third, very large, serious project in the works, also concerning blind people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Great Architecture for All Children<\/em> was a response to a combination of many needs. First, I noticed that I was afraid of blind people. That exact phrase was something I heard this year at the Mini OSSA workshops, where I led a session with a group of students. The topic of the session was universal design, design for blind people. And exactly that sentence, \u201cI\u2019m afraid of blind people,\u201d was something I heard from the students. And it didn\u2019t surprise me at all. Such a statement isn\u2019t a bad thing, it\u2019s not heartless. It was said by a student who voluntarily came to the workshop, came to design with blind people in mind. And us? Why are we afraid of them? Because until now, blind people have been excluded from society and from normal life. And as we know, any problem \u2013 once it\u2019s tamed, once it\u2019s deeply understood \u2013 can be translated into our own language. That was one of the main reasons.<\/p>\n

The next question: why architecture? I wanted to create an interesting project about the city for blind people. I think that blind people mainly get to know the world through touch, though not necessarily only in that way. But how do you touch something that is huge, gigantic, something that can’t be grasped with your fingers or arms? That\u2019s where the idea of presenting architecture to blind people came from. I was aware that contemporary architecture is a wonderful art form and that we shouldn\u2019t deprive blind people of the opportunity to get to know this beauty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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MT:<\/em> You made a project for blind people \u2013 that was the first thought that came to my mind when I encountered the initiative Great Architecture for All Children<\/em>. However, now I think that you also addressed the issue of familiarizing people with the unknown, showing those without disabilities the challenges that people with disabilities face in terms of urban planning and architecture. The project popularizes methods used by blind people: tactile graphics and audio description.<\/p>\n <\/h2>\n

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EO:<\/em> We provided tactile graphics and audio descriptions not only to blind people but also to sighted people. Blind people probably used audio descriptions more, as the technique was more detailed in our case. They probably used tactile graphics less, but those, in turn, were a fantastic way to show sighted people how a blind person perceives a book, text, print, or drawing. In the United States, audio description is used as one of the primary teaching methods for fully sighted children, not just blind children. Audio description builds imagination in an incredible way. If your imagination keeps up with the words describing a shape, you simultaneously create that image in your mind. And it\u2019s such a great exercise that it has been recognized as an educational method. Moreover, the way reality is described also shapes the ability to choose words and linguistic precision.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Poland, there are two schools of audio description \u2013 the Bia\u0142ystok school, led by Barbara Szyma\u0144ska and Tomasz Strzemi\u0144ski, and the Warsaw school, which we used, led by Ula Budkiewicz. Of course, these two schools differ from each other. When working with Ula Budkiewicz, we consulted her descriptions with children. The Bia\u0142ystok school argues that descriptions should be created as dry, devoid of emotional connotations. Plain descriptions that accurately build space \u2013 the space that the person receiving the description fills with their own associations and feelings. On the other hand, Ula Budkiewicz, who did the descriptions for us, allowed herself to be more imaginative. However, this was audio description for children, and we found that nothing bores a child more than a dry, plain description \u2013 the child feels like they\u2019re on a school trip. And this proved to be true, the kids chose those descriptions where the building resembled a square elephant, those that referred to familiar terms.<\/p>\n

Braille is, on the other hand, a very old method of raised print, which unfortunately is slowly fading away. Nowadays, there are many spoken books. For example, every textbook can be scanned and converted into a voice message. It is easier for blind people to study now, as they have access not only to literature translated into Braille. And Braille is fading away. Maybe in schools for blind children, they still learn Braille to read signage in elevators? And tactile graphics? It is a drawing that shows, in two dimensions, things like perspective or shape. Tactile graphics are still in use.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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MT:<\/em> I can’t help but ask about the result of the project. You gathered both sighted and blind children. I wonder what impact this project had on the awareness of sighted children, and what benefits it brought to blind children?<\/p>\n <\/h2>\n

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EO:<\/em> It’s hard for me to answer. The nature of the workshops was such that very long, four-hour sessions ended simply with the participants leaving by bus, and I could only wave them goodbye. I could only later be in touch with the facilitators of those groups. The sighted children who came to the workshops were already familiar with disabilities because they attended inclusive schools. Most of the blind children had mild intellectual disabilities. So, the teenagers were at the developmental level of eight- or nine-year-olds, and they met sighted children of that age.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blind children were always excited about going out into the world, any contact with peers, with people, was something they looked forward to. They just need to be taken out of schools, which \u2013 although they may provide a lot of knowledge and help with spatial orientation \u2013 become useless if they limit themselves to education without practice. Modern schools for the blind are starting to recognize this need and are taking their students out into the world. I met the headmaster of a school in Laski, who is an absolutely remarkable person. He even managed to take blind children to Rome. Together with a friend, an architect, they decided to take their students to a construction site. And these children, in helmets, were flying between unfinished structural elements on the top floors of an office building in Warsaw. This is also somewhat an answer to your earlier question \u2013 these children really need to be shown everything.<\/p>\n

Then our book reached children who hadn\u2019t attended the workshops at all. The publication had a print run of 1,000 copies, and it was offered to teachers. Children had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the publication in a completely different form. And from what I saw, these children, even though they didn\u2019t participate in the workshops, were very interested.<\/p>\n

The most valuable thing is that the project provided an opportunity for integration. An adult who meets a blind person usually adopts a posture of sympathy, which blind people do not want. During the workshops in Krak\u00f3w, it often turned out in conversations with blind people that this was something that irritated them the most \u2013 the posture of sympathy. But here, the kids could simply say, \u00ab\u00a0Wow! You really can’t see?! But!\u00a0\u00bb A six- or seven-year-old probably knows that the other person has it harder, but there is no sympathy in them. There is curiosity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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MT:<\/em> I\u2019m thinking of another context of the project. Was Great Architecture for All Children<\/em> in some way an initiative aimed at \u2013 or perhaps it just happened to \u2013 popularize the issue of designing for everyone, universal design?<\/p>\n <\/h2>\n

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EO:<\/em> This project was also addressed to architects. Perhaps those who now visit the website of our project and appreciate it will automatically start thinking about designing for blind people. Seven buildings in Warsaw were described, designed by five architectural firms, and two architects met with these children, spoke with them. Maciej Mi\u0142ob\u0119dzki from the JEMS Architekci studio showed incredible empathy, even though he didn\u2019t have any scientific training in working with blind children, let alone those with intellectual disabilities. He spoke with the workshop participants, guided them, familiarized them with architecture, and tried to explain everything to them. Indeed, our project also had this third dimension \u2013 it aimed to make architects aware.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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MT:<\/em> It also probably aimed to teach how to feel architecture, didn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n <\/h2>\n

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EO:<\/em> We focused on everything that isn\u2019t vision, so on every other way of perception \u2013 we wondered how many possibilities there are to experience architecture. There is, of course, touch \u2013 we touched things that were two-dimensional, things that were three-dimensional, things that were on a huge scale, there is the word \u2013 audio descriptions helped with that, and finally, there is sound, acoustics. I watched in admiration as the children created acoustic maps of buildings right before my eyes. At the very end of the workshops, we would enter a building, which was a very valuable experience for the children \u2013 how to navigate contemporary architecture, understand its acoustics, its echolocation specific features. Blind children, and blind people in general, often use echolocation. While in Krak\u00f3w for the workshops, I spoke with Lucyna Zalewska, who specializes in the theory of spatial orientation. She takes blind people to a recording studio to test various building materials for their echolocation properties. As a result, a diagram of more or less effective materials is to be created.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to all of this, besides the word, sound and touch, there is also some sixth sense that blind people have. A sense that allows them to feel the atmosphere and the mood of a place. I feel this atmosphere too, because my sight helps me. I walk in, I see, and immediately I know \u2013 an office building or a pleasant, cozy attic. When we were in the Rodan building designed by Magdalena Staniszkis, we went to the garden at the back of the building, which starts with natural plantings and then transitions into a meadow full of birches. And just at the moment when we went outside and walked to the garden, which could have easily been a garden with conifers amidst concrete paving stones, as is usually the case, as is commonly accepted in contemporary architecture, it turned out that this one was different. The children went outside and immediately said: \u00ab\u00a0Miss, this is like being in a garden plot!\u00a0\u00bb How they knew that, I don\u2019t know. Blind children have a sense that is hard to classify clearly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n \n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"class_list":["post-733","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFields of Unseen | Landscape Practice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/landscapepractice.com\/fr\/research\/fields-of-unseen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fields of Unseen | Landscape Practice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/landscapepractice.com\/fr\/research\/fields-of-unseen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Landscape Practice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-01T17:11:41+00:00\" 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