Notes on Blindness VR

Notes on Blindness is a feature length film which has now been given an accompanying VR experience.

The narrative follows the story of a man named John Hull, whom after losing sight knew that if he did not try to understand blindness it would destroy him. So In 1983 he began keeping an audio diary.

Over three years John recorded over sixteen hours of material, a unique testimony of loss, rebirth and renewal, excavating the interior world of blindness.

Published in 1990, the diaries were described by author and neurologist Oliver Sacks as, ‘A masterpiece… The most precise, deep and beautiful account of blindness I have ever read.’

Following on from the Emmy Award-winning short film of the same name, Notes on Blindness is an ambitious and groundbreaking work, both affecting and innovative – and one of the most essential British documentaries of the year.

Since premiering at Sundance in January 2016 (alongside our virtual reality project) the film has played at over 40 international festivals. It won the Best Documentary at the British Independent Film Awards and was nominated for 3 BAFTAS (including Best Documentary and Outstanding British Film).

Through VR,  these underlying themes are explored dramatically.

The film takes on a unique visual aesthetic. Figures are fragmented and landscapes created by a series of tiny dots symbolic of brail. These hard to establish visuals are there purposely to effectively transcend you through the eyes of John himself, in not his visual world but his world of audio and touch. Figures that he hears are fragmented and environments that he touches are dotted like brail.

The background is just black as these aspects of the world are beyond these 2 senses. Its also symbolic of the emotional darkness in his life as a result of becoming blind.

This VR establishes the user with a body, who we assume is Johns himself, which increases the immersion you feel.

Its truly beautiful and shows how VR is effective at making you feel and witness aspects of other peoples experiences first handedly.