This research project is intended as a photographic inquiry into the phenomenon of cortical blindness, a form of visual/spatial loss resulting from damage to the brain, rather than the eyes. Cortical blindness has been described as the loss of one’s sense of ‘whereness’.
The research will center on photographic experiments in which the camera acts as a stand-in for the brain; if cortical blindness occurs because certain neurological connections in the brain are impaired, is it possible to visualize this experience by analogy using a camera in which certain mechanical/electrical connections are also (intentionally) impaired? Such an approach addresses the pressing need for more artistic research projects at the intersection of disability and photography, while exploring how our perceptual norms (and the exclusions they create) relate to the cultural, photographic, and institutional apparatuses of which we form a part.
