Beyond the Visual - Simon Hayhoe on His Opening Keynote Speech

Season 1, Episode 1442,   Oct 27, 2022, 10:45 AM

Beyond the Visual, a symposium reflecting on what blindness brings to the experience of art within cultural organisations and beyond was held at Wellcome Collection on Friday and Saturday 21 and 22 October 2022.  

Visually impaired and sighted Speakers at the symposium included artists, creative practitioners, disability activists, historians, researchers and scientists together to not only to talk about inclusion and access to the arts for blind and partially sighted people but also to talk about what blind and partially sighted people can bring to cultural experiences for all.

RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey was there for both days of the symposium catching up with some of the key people behind Beyond the Visual and some of the key speakers too.

In the second of Toby’s interviews from the symposium he chats with Simon Hayhoe about his opening keynote speech, Experiencing Visual Art Having Never Experienced Vision.

Simon Hayhoe is a Reader in Education at the University of Bath and his current work focuses on sensory impairment, accessible technologies, and teaching and learning in the arts.

Simon gave Toby a summary of his opening keynote speech, Experiencing Visual Art Having Never Experienced Vision, the waves of inclusion in the arts for visually impaired people which have come over the years, and about a blind artist who is now in his 70s who never went to school and therefore was not told that he could not do art because he is blind.

To find out more about the Beyond the Visual Symposium and the network do visit the University of London research web pages via the following website -
https://www.arts.ac.uk/research/stories


(Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)