Although it sounds bizarre and absurd to go to a museum blindfolded, but it is actually a fun and meaningful experience for me and my partner, Zoe.
I am the first person who is being blindfolded and Zoe guides me around the Whitney Museum of American Art. I wear a pair of sunglasses with two cotton pads covering the glasses. It is really uncomfortable and scary to walk in a space with lots of people and valuable artworks. Thus I walk really slowly, trying to see things, but I couldn’t see anything except darkness. I grab Zoe’s arm tightly and constantly ask her if there are any steps or people in front of me. After a few minutes, she chooses a painting that she wants to describe to me, then we sit on the bench in front of it. It is really weird that even though I am facing the painting but I can only picture it in my mind while listening to Zoe’s description.
When people with vision describe something to a blind person, they will notice more details that they would not normally notice. That is because when people get used to seeing things, they will take it for granted. That’s the reason why I usually spend less than a minute in front of an artwork, but this time, I spend almost 12 minutes in front of each artwork. Besides, I learned that sometimes words are really weak and pale, it can never replace the real-life image. To see the artworks by our own eyes is much more powerful than just imagine it in our mind based on the description given by other people.
