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.

Image result for blind smell 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.