Peter de Cupere Blind Smelling Stick & a Scent Telescope (2012), in Rio de Janeiro.
- Blind Smell Stick has a tiny bulb on the end with holes and smell detectors.
- Scents reach your nose through the tube, helped by some mini ventilators, heating, and filters.
- The dark glasses cancel out your sense of sight and you focus on smelling and finding your way through touching with the stick.
Sensory replacement – Sight >>> Smell (Sound/Touch)
Adding another sense to the focus of the blind man’s stick
“It can help blind people to find their way, or to prevent that they walk in a shit (they can smell it before).”
I felt that this piece created a new experience simply by bringing a less used sense to the fore of daily navigation. This places the user in an interesting dynamic as we are making a decision on where to walk or turn away from, based on what we smell.
Peter de Cupere presents a different take on the experience of losing one’s sight.
Special mention:
Derek Jarman Blue (1993).
Film that is not visual, but about the failing of the visual sense.
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