Middlesex University London " Middlesex University Research Repository: an open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Del Tufo, Bruno, 2006. Visual impairment: its impact upon and implications for aesthetic experience. Available from Middlesex University's Research Repository . • eo Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University's research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this thesis/research project are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Any use of the thesis/research project for private study or research must be properly acknowledged with reference to the work's full bibliographic details. This thesis/research project may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from it, or its content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address: [email protected] The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. VISUAL IMPAIRMENT ITS IMPACT UPON AND IMPLICATIONS FOR AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE A thesis submitted to Middlesex University In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy BRUNO DEL TUFO SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING AND EDUCATION MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY JULY 2006 1 THIS RESEARCH PROGRAMME RESPECTS THE EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CONFIDENTIALITY AND THE ANONYMITY OF INDIVIDUALS WHEREVER NECESSARY. IN EVERY INSTANCE, PERMISSION HAS BEEN OBTAINED BEFORE ANY INFORMATION HAS BEEN USED AND IN EVERY CASE, INFORMATION HAS BEEN CHECKED BY THE PARTICIPANTS TO ENSURE THAT THE ACCURACY OF THE REPORT HAS BEEN MAINTAINED. ANY OFFENCE OR EMBARRASSMENT TO ANY VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE WOULD BE DEEPLY REGRETTED. 2 CONTENTS. SETTING mE SCENE. 3. CHAPTER ONE. RAISING mE QUESTION. INTRODUCTION. 4. ARTWORK AND THE PRODUCTION OF ARTWORK. 21. THE RESEARCH PROGRAMME. 24. CLASSIFICATION OF BLINDNESS. 26. DEFINITION OF BLINDNESS. 28. VISUAL IMPAIRMENT AND DISABILITY. 29. VISION AND SEEING. 32. CHAPTER TWO. DEVELOPING THE PARAMETERS. LITERATURE SEARCH. 54. PILOT STUDY. 62. METHODOLOGY. 68. EDUCATIONAL FRAME OF REFERENCE. 79. ETHICAL ISSUES 80. CHAPTER THREE. THE RESEARCH. THE MAIN STUDY. 85. JOHNPYM. 89. ROSEMARY CARTER. 106. ELIZABETH PRICE SIMMONS. 122. CY. FOLLINGTON. 138. JOY WILKINSON. 155. OBSERVATION SHEETS. 168. SPECULATION. 233. SUPPLEMENTARY OBSERVATION SHEETS. 235. CHAPTER FOUR. REALISATION. 244. INDIVIDUALITY OF AESTHETICS. 249. THE INTERPLAY OF SENSATION. 257. CONTROL OVER THE SPATIAL. 263. APPENDIX. 272. GLOSSARY. 273. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ARTICLES. 279. PAPERS PRINTED ON THE INTERNET. 288. AN OVERVIEW OF CHILDREN'S EYE CONDmONSIINSIDE SIGHT. QUESTIONNAIRES/CONSENT FORMS/STOCK QUESTIONS. ABSTRACT. SETTING THE SCENE. With this research programme, I will be looking at how visually impaired people interpret the sensory inputs that artwork evokes together with the spatial environment that visually impaired people engage with. The study intertwines concepts of aesthetics that have specific relevance for visually impaired people, together with the processes and concepts associated with vision. The study refers to some common beliefs regarding blindness and provides some evidence of links between art and blindness. The study reflects upon how human cognitive processes are different for blind people, the use of verbal description used by visually impaired people and comments upon the logical reasoning processes developed by people with sight loss. Finally the study teases out methods of media manipulation, the interplay of different sensory stimulus and the control that visually impaired people endeavour to exert over an unseen environment. The nature of this research will be developed into a programme which explores and revisits the central themes of study using a system of concentric evolution. (See methodology section.) As a result, this 'intertwining study' will examine the values of each strand of research and will provide data regarding the aesthetic understanding and creative processes used by people with visual impairment, together with an appreciation of the methods blind people engage with to understand and use spatial properties. 3 CHAPTER ONE. RAISING THE QUESTION. INTRODUCTION. What is the nature of aesthetic experience for people with sight loss? Assumptions are made about blindness (1) which raise critical questions concerning the difference between a 'seen' and 'unseen' world. To the sighted person, blindness is often regarded as a lifelong human handicap, devoid of interaction with a visual world. These assumptions often create a barrier of understanding between sighted and unsighted people. Yet these impressions about sight loss have been historically formed from limited knowledge and understanding of what constitutes 'blindness.' In the light of contemporary research developments (Millar 1994. Scholl, 1986) there now exists a more informed basis for recognising a wide classification of sight disabilities suggesting that many blind people are capable of responding positively to visual stimuli. Scholl (1986.pg 23) examines the condition of blindness by exploring influences and relationships, attitudes and beliefs of sighted people towards blind people. Equally she considers the beliefs and attitudes of blind people towards people with sight. 1. The term 'blindness' is used as a general term for visual impairment, sight loss and real or metaphorical forms of 'not seeing' in the early part of this report. Once the terms of blindness have been established, specific referencing will be used. See page 24. 4 She examines the reactions of blind people towards blindness and towards themselves as blind people. In challenging the popular conceptions that blind people are exempt from forms of visual perception, Scholl (1986, pg 23.) makes the point that in reality only about. 10% of all persons labelled as blind are totally without sight and only about 20% of school age children labelled as visually handicapped. Most persons considered blind do respond to some visual stimulation e.g. light and dark shadows; or moving objects; and do not live in a world of total darkness. (Scholl, 1986 p23.) Scholl has qualified a parameter for the term 'blindness, which ascribes to a more continuum based definition of blindness. Millar (1994), who is interested in the spatial understanding of the blind and wishes to contribute to the question of how visual experience relates to spatial knowledge, asks, 'Is visual experience crucial?' and develops her introduction with this observation. To understand the role of vision, I am asking what, if any, information is missing in its absence and, if so, how can it be substituted. Furthermore, sound, as the main other distance sense we have is often regarded as the only substitute for vision. But investigating information from touch and movement is equally, if not more, important because, as I hope to show, it can yield knowledge about relations between extended surfaces in a way that hearing alone cannot do. (Millar, 1994) Millar wants to see where on the continuum one can be and its effect on spatial awareness, with her central question being, if one is at the furthest end of the continuum (totally blind) what, if any information is missing which cannot be substituted. If one puts her ideas into a notional model as illustrated, TOUCH SIGHT ---------------------------------------------- SOUND TRADmONAlLY SEEN AS TIIE MOST DIRECT SUBSTITUTE MOVEMENT 5 One begins to wonder if the combination of movement/touch can assist in knowledge/experience whenever sight is missing! Richard Gregory (199S.pg15) examines the links between vision, perception and knowledge of the visual world and makes this point, The underlying philosophy is that perceptions are but indirectly related to stimulus inputs from the senses, and that perception involves betting on what they may mean. So knowledge is very important. As perception has to work very fast to be useful it can only use limited knowledge, mainly of the interactive properties of objects; while conceptual understanding which is slow and can be much deeper, develops more abstract knowledge. (Gregory, 1995) Gregory's notional model can be viewed as follows; IMPACT OF IMPACT OF SOUND VISION PERCEPTION IMPACT OF IMPACT OF TOUCH SMELL If you look at this model as transitory and its contents change based upon the strength of the individual sensation, one can appreciate that the model used by Millar is fixed rather like a pendulum whilst Gregory's model is cyclic in format. One's perception is expanded and formed by visiting and revisiting each particular sense dependent upon the intensity of input. Each model uses knowledge as the driving force, while Millar is concerned with the perception of space, Gregory is concemed with links between visual/perception and knowledge of a visual world. It is clear that the physical act of seeing, the interpretation of what is seen and the understanding of what is seen, is a series of individualistic sensory processes, yet any 6 study into these processes of visual impainnent is chronologically recent. By consulting the historical