VC II | dialogue in the dark

Having been in dialogue in the dark once, I thought I will have the same experience and feeling after my visit. However, it never fails to surprise! Every visit there is a whole different experience and I still feel the jitters once everything turns pitch black.

Once we entered and we are unable to see, I felt very scared and insecure. Losing an important sense meant that we have to make sure of our other senses, and it was a tough deal. Sight is very important to a lot of us, and we might regard it as the most important sense. Without sight, I tried to use sense of touch and hearing to navigate within the space.

I felt quite reliant on others, and constantly wanted someone to guide me around. I used a lot of sense of touch, and kept touching things and making sure that the nearby surroundings was safe to walk before moving on. A weird statement, but I felt that the blind were the ones with sight inside the space. It was so dark but they managed to guide us through, and even helped my fellow group members that needed help.

It’s definitely not easy for them to move about, as they need to familiarise themselves with the surroundings and it takes time. Familiarising themselves takes a huge mind memory toll on them to remember so much, and it’s like they have a “mind map” inside of them.

Inside there, without my sight, I experienced daily life activities in a different way, with the usage of my other senses. I realised that sometimes just viewing isn’t everything, engaging all 5 senses is more important and sensual.

I also gained an insight on how one, not blinded by birth can adapt so well due to circumstances. I also realised that for the blind, audio is very important. We shouldn’t take the gift that we have for granted and instead, should appreciate.

Some benefits inherent in the design research technique is facilitate, empathise, opening to new opportunities and ideas, seeing from a different POV and cohesiveness.

Role playing can help designers discover solutions and methods that are in conjunction with the roles. Some examples are having solutions like the usage of textures, audio and visual tools.

That’s it from my dialogue in the dark reflection!

Till then,
Flazéda!
jamz
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