Blind Field Shuttle | Carmen Papalia

Special Residency

Jun 26

Written By

Carmen Papalia, Vancouver, Canada

Blind Field Shuttle, South Elm Projects, 2015, sightless, individually led and group tours through downtown Greensboro

A non-visual walking tour, Blind Field Shuttle, is an experience in which the artist leads participants on eyes-closed walks through urban and rural spaces. For the project’s Greensboro installation, Papalia designed and led tours of downtown that encouraged participants to particularly reflect on the accessibility of the city and on sensory learning. Participants included Elsewhere staff and Greensboro community members, ranging from city council members and representatives from a variety of municipal departments to downtown residents, business owners, and local non-profit leaders. The intimacy of the walks encouraged trust, connection, and the sharing of personal experiences between neighbors and across cultural affiliations. Each walk culminated in a sensory map making exercise in which participants documented their impressions of the terrain they had passed through and their reflections on the experience.

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Jun 13, 2015

Carmen Papalia

Jun 13, 2015

Carmen Papalia designs experiences that invite those involved to expand their perceptual mobility and claim access to public and institutional spaces. Often requiring trust and closeness, these engagements disorient the participant in order to introduce new modes of orientation that allow for perceptual and sensorial discovery. An open sourcing of his own embodiment, Papalia’s work makes visible the opportunities for learning and knowing that come available through the non-visual senses. It is a chance to unlearn looking and to help acknowledge, map and name entire unseen bodies of knowledge.

Carmen created Blind Field Shuttle during his residency.

Jun 13, 2015

2015South Elm ProjectswalkingtourCarmen Papalia

Blind Field Shuttle | Carmen Papalia

elsewherestock.com | Jane Claire Remick

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