What does the world look like if we lack the sense of sight? What are strategies to decolonize vision? And how can we nuance the Aristotelian ideas of the five senses? In this episode, director Valentijn Byvanck has a conversation about echo location and a world dominated by the sense of sight with visual artist Britt Hatzius, and echolocation instructor, researcher and thinker Thomas Tajo.

Together Hatzius en Tajo founded the non-profit organization Vision Inclusive in August 2020 in order to initiate and support collaborations between people with and without disabilities to help build and promote a culture of openness. www.visioninclusive.org

For more information about Training the Senses and upcoming events check the Marres website. For more info on this particular workshop click here.

TRAINING THE SENSES

Knowledge is not only acquired visually at schools through language and text books. Learning involves all of our senses: we learn by listening, tasting, smelling, touching – and even by using our intuition. In the Training the Senses program, participants explore and discover a new vocabulary for their senses and a new way to transmit experience and acquire knowledge. Training the Senses is an ongoing series of workshops by Marres since 2016. The podcast conversations (since 2022) are moderated by Valentijn Byvanck, director of Marres.

ABOUT THOMAS TAJO

Thomas Tajo (IN/BE) is a blind echolocation and perceptual navigational instructor, researcher and thinker, and a blindness activist and consultant. Thomas sees his blindness not as a disability but as a different set of capabilities in experiencing and being in the world. He offers echolocation and mobility lessons, workshops and talks worldwide for organizations for the blind, families of blind children, and to both individuals and groups of blind children and adults.

ABOUT BRITT HATZIUS

Britt Hatzius (DE/UK) works in film, video, sound and performance. Her work has been shown internationally at performance and media arts festivals, institutions and galleries. Thomas and Britt met during the research of her performance ‘Blind Cinema’ (2015) and have since remained in close dialogue and collaboration.