Thursday, 5 April 2012
Dialogue in the Dark was one of the place which I identified as a must do during my time in Hong Kong.
The exhibition itself was a series of dark rooms furnished to the surrounding that a vision impaired individual has to negotiate through everyday. I was given a stick to find my way through these rooms. The uncertainty of what was in front of me was really unsettling. I was actually afraid of the dark, permanent darkness. There was not a switch that I could simply flick on to see again.
There was a guide who guided me through the whole exhibition. The start was actually a traumatic experience. I was so difficult just to walk the first 5 metres. It gave my an insight of what a vision impaired would go through their life. It made me realise how lucky I am. It also made me realised how unimaginative I was. Everything I heard or felt took me back to a place I have been and I simply could not imagine. It was definitely a humbling experience in that the guide used her hearing and voice to guided me through. She could tell I was pointing in the wrong direction based on my voice. Dialogue in the Dark gave them a platform to express themselves and to support themselves. I was really inspired by the guide’s story, felt sad in a way that my passion in travelling would be difficult to share with them but not impossible. From now on, my travelling would not just be captured visually through my camera. Hopefully, I would be able to capture sounds, like the Tibetan Monk Band waking me up at 6 a.m. in the morning. Sound was a little bit underrated by me but not anymore.
To be continued….
Adventures of Delboy 