Seeing Beyond Sight Photo Challenge by Charlie Fish
October 15th, 2007 9:27 AMAfter so many brilliant completions, I wanted to do something a little different. I was originally tempted to go epic and spend 24 hours without sight, but that would have taken planning - and in the end sponteneity won out.
Last Friday night I was drinking in the pub with a friend, and the subject of this challenge came up. I decided then and there that I would do it the following day - regardless of my other plans. I set myself two goals:
1) I would wake up blind, and do my usual Saturday morning chores, without sight.
2) I would attend a theatre matinee, which I had already planned to do, without sight.
The original 24-hour epic idea will have to wait for another day, but meanwhile I felt like those were decent challenges. And there is an extra twist in the tale...
The friend with whom I was drinking when this discussion arose suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, and unfortunately she doesn't have the option of taking off her blindfold. In a neat role reversal, she was guiding me for the day!
Pictures and story below...
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The only preparation I did the night before was to put my camera by my bed and to blindfold myself. I woke up in the morning wearing dark sunglasses with a beanie hat pulled down over my face. Total blackout. My wife was away, so for the time being I was on my own.
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I instinctively turned the light on as I crept into the bathroom. Pointless. I took the blindfold off to take a shower, but kept my eyes tightly shut. Only for a split second did I forget and open my eyes, and all I saw was some shower curtain.
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I decided not to shave, and replaced the blindfold. One thing that struck me was the immense value of routine. I would have been totally lost if my toothbrush, hair gel, clothes, etc. were not where I left them.
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I made the bed and laid my clothes out. I guessed what I was wearing by feeling it. Turns out I was right.
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I made my breakfast, brought it to the lounge and turned the radio on. I was quite proud of managing that without spilling or breaking anything.
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Time to do some of the household chores. I loaded the laundry into the washing machine and started it up. It turns out I got it on the wrong cycle, but everything still got clean.
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I emptied the rubbish and the recycling - but I couldn't tell which were the black bags and which were the orange recycling ones. Fortunately, at this point my housemate woke up and he told me that I had got it wrong. The most scary part of my morning was the brief few seconds as I walked from our front door to the outdoor bins. All alone in the great outdoors - I felt incredibly vulnerable.
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Two things utterly defeated me. The first was the washing up. I had no idea how much stuff had been left to wash up, and I didn't dare attempt it in case I broke any of our brand new wedding gift crockery. The second thing that defeated me was my mobile phone. It was an utterly useless lump of plastic.
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Having done the household chores, I took the blindfold off. I had completely lost track of the time and it turns out that everything had taken a lot longer than I thought - I was running late to meet my buddies for the matinee. I rushed into town, met my friends, and replaced the blindfold. I used plasters this time, so I looked like Dr Bunsen Honeydew.
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This is my friend Lucy in Leicester Square. We are queueing for matinee tickets. I think this is a pretty good picture considering I couldn't see.
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Lucy has pretty eyes, but they don't work. She has a pinpoint of blurry vision straight ahead of her if it's bright, but she can't see anything in the dark. On this day, however, SHE was guiding ME. (I should note that this picture wasn't taken while I was blindfolded - it's an old pic.)
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I've always thought retinitis pigmentosa sounds like a particularly cruel Harry Potter spell. I asked Lucy how she thought she would cope with no vision at all, and she admitted that she didn't think she'd be able to - and yet when she is walking home by herself in the dark she often actually does have to cope with no vision at all.
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We ate lunch. I had to feel my food. I felt like I was doing fairly well, but I had to really battle an instinct to retreat into my own little world and not say anything. I felt like humming a little and rocking, and maybe having a little cry. Funny thing is, Lucy often does hum for no apparent reason. Now I begin to understand how how she feels.
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Here are a couple of views of Leicester Square from where we were having our lunch. While we were eating, I felt really uncomfortable - kind of suddenly lonely - if no-one was talking. So I tried to keep the conversation going.
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I felt theoretically oriented - I could feel that we were sitting at a square table, I knew that we were in the southeast corner of the square, I was told that there were rope barriers to my left and the pub entrance to my right - and yet I felt oddly lost and uncertain.
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We got tickets to Stomp. My other friend Fiona joined us. She is sighted, except when she has her eyes closed...
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As we went into the theatre, the girls nipped into the toilets, leaving me to wait for them on the stairs. I must have looked very odd, standing tightly against the wall, shifting uncomfortably, with plasters on my eyes; but no-one commented. Perhaps unsurprisingly.
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I got told off for taking this in the theatre! The show was pretty cool, although I was sorely tempted to take off the blindfold, particularly when Fiona kept saying how it was such a visual show. After a while, I settled in and started enjoying it a lot more. Fiona occasionally described what was happening on stage for mine and Lucy's benefit.
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Taking the blindfold plasters off. OW! I lost quite a few eyelashes. I should have thought of that beforehand, really. I had a bit of a headache afterwards, but it was totally worth it.
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I had plenty of mixed feelings during the day, but none of them stopped me from having a lot of fun. I felt like I learned a little more about how much I rely on my eyesight and what it might be like to be without it. And I'm grateful to Fiona for guiding my body, and Lucy for guiding my soul, through the second half of the experience.
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Great new take on the task. I love it. I thought we had exhausted new takes on the task. Boy was I wrong. I can't wait to see now what other people come up with.
I felt like humming a little and rocking, and maybe having a little cry. Funny thing is, Lucy often does hum for no apparent reason.
seems like you thought hard and realized much about a number of things.....
i remember doing this task and thinking about how much of our simple interpersonal communication is really visual...
Nicely done!
Blindfolded chores and blindfolded eating both sound complicated and really interesting. A great idea, and a lovely writeup.
And I appreciate the sacrifice of seeing a show that's at least 30% dance without removing the blindfold. If your theater ushers are anything like ours, I imagine you missed a whole lot of frowns generated by your escapade.
What'd Lucy think of the task? I could easily see it being interpreted as rather obnoxious and offensive. (For that matter, I'm not entirely convinced that it *isn't,* despite our best efforts to approach it in a positive way.)
Loki - that was a concern for me, that Lucy would find it insensitive. But she's a good enough friend to tell me if she thought I was taking it too far (for example she made it clear that she didn't want to guide me to the ticket booth without Fiona there as well), and I think she could see what I was trying to do. I didn't want to take the piss! In the end, I think she found it all very amusing.
Starting the task by waking up "blind" was brilliant! I imagine that must've been really disorienting, not being able to look around you in preparation before donning the blindfold.
It's also really interesting how you talk about how you felt lonely when there were lulls in the conversation. I've never thought of about how isolating that'd feel, but it makes a lot of sense.
What an amazing completion. Its so well done.
Absolutly awesome and I think it is such a thought provoking experience. When we did our's it was just for about half an hour and it was v v difficult so I have the upmost respect for both you and Lucy especially.
Great completion.
And that picture of your lunch is AMAZING!
Oh lord, not the mushy peas! Whenever I'm in the UK (a lot), I always end up "giving them another chance." But seriously. Why mushy? Why not fresh? Why must they taste like vinegar? I already put vinegar on my fish and chips, why must there be more?
I spent a day in Wells-Next-The-Sea this past June and we went to this tiny little fish and chip shop bursting at the seams with the locals. When we finally got our food, I caught sight of a customer dipping their fish in a little plastic carton of mushy peas. I think it was the unnaturally greenish hue that made me think, "Okay, one last chance..."
I ended up getting harassed by my aunt for not eating it after spending another 10 minutes in line. "Think of us kids during the war... we didn't even have mushy peas served in plastic..."
I've been spending a lot of time going back over the completions for this task and just wanted to tell everyone who did it and told their story just how much I appreciate it.
I'm almost normally sighted, but I was raised by my grandmother, who has the same sight problems as your friend Lucy as a part of Sjogren-Larsson syndrome. Your description of dependence on routine and placement touched me; everyone in my household growing up learned to accommodate for that, and eleven years out of the house I am still a compulsive organiser. Enough so that I putter around my own space intentionally blinded when I get migraines, but the outside world is a scary something else altogether. You are making me want to level zero this just to remain mindful when dealing with the old lady. thank you.
Wow, this is great. I love how you start it off as a completely normal day. A lot of other people who have completed this task have gone on crazy adventures, but with yours, we get to see a day in the life of Mr. Fish! Great job. Oh, and I love the eye "plasters."
So, when are you, Minka and Mr. Mouse coming to our side of the world? I'm going to keep on bugging you guys, just to let you know :)