http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTInyOHVbv0 typhlology
| – nounthe medical study of the causes and treatment of blindness. |
[Greek tuphlos, blind + -logy.] I ultimately decided on the word “typhlology,” the medical study of blindness. Since coming to school in New York City, I have always been mystified and amazed when I see blind people effortlessly traverse the treacherous new york city streets. But what I really wanted to know, in a playful sort of way, was what these people imagined the city scape around them looking like. Everyone sees, understands and perceives the world around them differently, but what distorted visual perspective does someone without sight imagine New York to look like? Using 1957 film NY, NY: A Day in New York by Francis Thompson, which I found to be the perfect articulation of what I wanted to convey through a play on visual perspective, combined with a personal animated study of a blind man in New York City, I arrived at this…
Syncopated wonder! Beautiful rendition, playing off of the verticals of city towers, the blind man’s curiosity and his cane, the rhythms of upward walls and windows, and Lulu’s L’s… a wow!
This meditation on the word TYPHLOLOGY is so uplifting and observant. If only those of us sentient and seeing beings could be as appreciative of our surroundings as this fellow. I adored the exuberance of the drawings that gave breath and gravitas to the ever so sympathetic character your created in a world that is loud, colorful and never too overwhelming. This blind man is not a king, but rather a Marco Polo who is lead by determination and curiosity. Lynne