Recently I wrote about my new 3d building project. Today I would like to talk about how it has changed my entire perception of what buildings are.
Unlike in most of my posts, I cannot talk about blind people in general, because each person is their own story and background and education. I can only talk about how it made a difference in my own personal life, but hopefully even through my own story some concepts will be useful for others when creating an experience for blind people, for example a tactile museum exhibit.
I was born totally blind and I was happy in my own little world until my younger brother was born and he started drawing. Then I felt the urge to do the same. He was drawing all kinds of things, but one thing really fascinated me was when he drew houses. I wanted to draw one. But the problem at the time was that I didn’t have special tools, so I took a sheet of paper and a crayon and asked my parents how to do it. This is the first concept they showed me, and since at the time I could not follow the lines I was making, I kept drawing the same houses over and over. It is just a line drawing, a square with a triangle on top.
So when I heard about houses, when I was 5 or 6, this is what I pictured in my mind. And when I heard about castles and palaces, I pictured a larger version of these houses in my mind, with many dogs and horses and soldiers around them, because I had experience with those.
Of course as I started learning art and history and geography, I obtained theoretical knowledge about buildings, and I knew that they are more complex, though I was ashamed to admit that even as an adult when I heard the word house or building, this is what I had in mind, or a big cold brick wall.
Travel has always been my passion, and when I traveled to any famous building, I first went to the gift shop to ask if they had a miniature model of the building I was visiting.
I have to say, in most instances they didn’t have anything. Or when they did, often it was a raised or two dimensional representation, or a stylistic concept that the original building compared to it was a stretch of the imagination for me. But I found a few miniature buildings here and there which I still treasure and slowly started to learn things about buildings.
But the breakthrough was last year. I was browsing the net, and I came across the Souvenir Building Collectors Society. My membership inspired me to follow the discussions and read books about buildings. Of course, I couldn’t contribute much but that’s another story, it was great to learn. But then I quickly realized that there is so much more about buildings than I could have imagined.
That’s when the idea came to have my own buildings designed, anything I wanted and later another thought, why not share it with other blind people?
We started creating buildings I was curious about, and as of today I have 14. Each 3d printed building I held in my hand was a miracle. Each time I learned so much it was unimaginable. What were basic concepts for sighted people, those were the news of the year for me.
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I had no idea the Pentagon was so big compared to the height of the building
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I never knew about the side buildings of the Independence Hall
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I had no idea that the Paris Opera has so many windows
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I was amazed by the shape of the Denver Science museum
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I didn’t realize that there is so much “stuff” on the top of buildings
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I thought that towers were just tall straight buildings
Just to list a few things. And of course, I could have asked, I could have read more on it, but I didn’t. Maybe because at the time it didn’t matter, maybe because I didn’t even think that such complexity can even exist I could learn about.
There is another thing that completely surprised me: the difference between the description and the actual model. To me they are completely different together. I have heard the description of the White House or the US Capitol. But when I touched each one, I wouldn’t have recognized them. But it works the other way around, when I hold a building just by default I have no idea what’s what on it. Remember the line house before? Anything above and beyond that has been new to me recently. So until it was explained, I had no idea what I was touching. This is why we created a thorough description of each building, with blind people in mind who are holding it. The description and explanation has to be completely different if you don’t have much or any experience seeing things that maybe a daily thing for someone else.
It is unbelievable that at the moment, in March, 2024, we only have 14 buildings, plus I have a few more I bought in gift stores. And they gave me such a new outlook to the world. I can’t wait to have many more buildings, probably even other different structures to experience.
Conclusion
I would like to stress what I mentioned at the beginning: this is me, and my perception, and I by no means want to make the impression that this is true to most or any blind people. Chances are, there are things they can relate with. But just like with everything else, when it comes to blindness, the experience is determined by education, the availability of resources, upbringing, culture, etc. Also the eye condition and history plays a huge role: some are born blind, some lost their vision before they can remember, some have some remaining vision, some coped well with vision loss, etc. Each individual is a different story.
If you are interested about this topic, I would highly recommend Andrew Leland’s The Country of the Blind which I have recently reviewed, it is one of the greatest pieces of reference materials, while actually being entertaining.
You can also read more about the building project and find out how to buy any of them.
