Artist Carmen Papalia along with Agnes Docents guide visitors through the exhibition “Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges” on a 20-minute “See for Yourself” non-visual tour. Designed for sighted, partially sighted or blind visitors, this community experience acknowledges the innate wisdom of all learners.
Born in Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territory, Carmen Papalia is a 2019 Sobey Award Long List nominee. He uses organizing strategies and improvisation to address access to public space, the art institution, and visual culture. Papalia’s walks, workshops, and interventions model new standards and practices of accessibility.Artist Carmen Papalia along with Agnes Docents guide visitors through the exhibition “Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges” on a 20-minute “See for Yourself” non-visual tour. Designed for sighted, partially sighted or blind visitors, this community experience acknowledges the innate wisdom of all learners. …
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[ Music ]
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>> So, really, what it is, it’s a
non-visual museum tour, where you are going
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to be described to with your eyes closed.
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And the idea is that you keep your
eyes closed for the entire tour,
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until your guide tells you to open them.
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I really think of this more
as like time in which we’re —
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intentional time spent with your eyes closed,
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time where you’re exercising
your non-visual senses.
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>> Sometimes, I pick up shapes and colours.
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So, right now, I’m just getting like these
really twinkling sort of lights from —
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like that’s the effect that my
visual field [inaudible] creating.
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And they again just remind
me of Christmas lights,
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where I’m not sure how this string is strung,
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but I know that there are
only a few bulbs on it.
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>> The acoustic space is just
a little bit different here
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than it was back there, when
the space was opened up.
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So, I’m just going to have you be aware of kind
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of like how the acoustic space
is changing, as we’re moving.
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>> I don’t feel comfortable identifying
myself as blind, is because like, you know,
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you like for synonyms for the word blind
and like they include things like careless,
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like imperceptive, you know,
unknowing– all these, all these —
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you know, seeing is believing, right?
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And we have all these ways of like understanding
vision in our culture that is connected
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to knowledge, but I think when —
what we just did, we close our eyes,
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and we realize that there’s
just so much more to discover.
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>> And we’re right in front of the work now
on our own, and I’m going to ask you to,
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in three, two, one, open your eyes.
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[ Music ]
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