Light for the Blind

Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. The idea of the project is to change the way people usually experience light – with their eyes – to ‘feeling’ it with their hands. It considers how blind people would be able to feel a world with light and enjoy the beauty of light and shadow, legible in the surfaces as braille. The jury finds it a very intelligent project in the way it develops its idea; from understanding that loss of sight increases the acuity of other senses, to the search for a responsive material that responds to light by expanding and retracting. It is a very readable proposal with a clear idea that is beautifully presented. It takes the sensation of daylight to another level with a solution that could easily be realised.