无视觉摄影 Nonvisual Photography
2022 - Present
Photography, Video, Braille, Text, Music
Project initiator: Qiu Rui Qi (Photographer, Performer, English Braille Translator)
List of Co-authors:
Billy Raffin (Photographer, Performer)
Ma Jian Ming (Photographer, Performer, Chinese Braille Translator)
Li Su Pei (Consultant Programmer)
Gao Yi Fan (Documentary Photographer)
Peng Chu Dan (Documentary Photographer)
Chen Liu Ying (Documentary Photographer)
Liu Bo (Documentary Photographer)
List of contributors:
Fang Yi Dan
Wang Dou Di
Fan Lin Yun Qing
Nonvisual photography is an exploration of a nonvisual experience of photography to improve the disadvantages of engagement with photography for visually impaired people and increase awareness of visual impairment for sighted people.
无视觉摄影是一次对无视觉摄影体验的探索，致力于改善视障人群在参与摄影方面的不利方面，以及提升非视障人群对于视障的意识。
It aims to design an artistic and supportive system built with diverse media that stimulate human’s multiple senses to enjoy photography through the transformation between media.
本项目企望设计一种由多种媒介组成的，艺术性与支持性并存的系统，通过不同媒介间彼此的形式转换来刺激人的多种感官，从而享受摄影。
The vision of this project is to offer a fair platform for visually impaired and sighted people to create and perceive photographs without involving human eyes. The experience of being involved in artistic and photographic activities is a way to meet visually impaired people's needs for visual art. At the same time, the non-visual experience can benefit sighted people by helping them understand their blind spot in recognising the world. Finally, with the promotion of the concept of Nonvisual Photography, we hope that the limitations that visually impaired people face in photography could be reduced, and people would be encouraged to explore a unique way belonging to themselves to experience photography.
本项目的愿景是为视障与非视障人群提供一个公平的平台，在不使用人类眼睛的情况下，来创作和感知摄影。被艺术与摄影活动包容的体验是一种满足视障人群对于视觉艺术需求的方式。同时，无视觉体验可以有益于非视障人群理解他们在认识世界时的盲点所在。最后，通过推广无视觉摄影理念，我们希望减少视障人群参与摄影时面对的诸多限制，并且能够鼓励人们探索属于他们自己的体验摄影的独特方式。
This project is currently being built based on all our members' volunteer work. Our members included both visually impaired people and sighted people.
We welcome support in any form and cooperation from individuals, organizations or institutions.
If you would like to talk about the possibilities of cooperation, such as exhibition, workshop, volunteer, sponsorship or coordination, please contact: qiuruiqi2077@gmail.com
PHOTOGRAPHS
The concept of this section is taking photographs without involving the photographer's eyes. It does not mean that photographers just simply click the shuttle randomly to get some photographs. The nonvisual photography practice aims to show an experience of thinking and enjoying photography seriously in an uncommon way for sighted people and encourage visually impaired people to share their experiences and thoughts about photography.
Documentary of Nonvisual Photography Part 1
Performers: Qiu Rui Qi, Billy Raffin
Documentary Photographers: Gao Yi Fan, Peng Chu Dan, Chen Liu Ying
Billy Raffin and Qiu Rui Qi both covered their eyes and tried to take a portrait of each other. They were in Melbourne's park around sunset time in 2022. Billy Raffin was speaking Spanish and Qiu Rui Qi was speaking Nanchangese (a dialect of Chinese), and they couldn't understand each other during the shooting. They tried to locate each other by the sound that they made.
Billy's Portrait (2022)
Co-authors: Qiu Rui Qi, Billy Raffin
Qiu Rui Qi covered her eyes and asked Billy Raffin to describe all the photographs that she had taken. Rui Qi also asked Billy to orally guide her to operate the computer and Photoshop to edit the photographs. After the edit, Rui Qi saw for the first time Billy Raffin's Portrait which she took without using her eyes.
Traces of the communication (2022)
Co-authors: Li Su Pei, Billy Raffin, Qiu Rui Qi
Li Su Pei helped to write a Python program to record the data of the mouse's movement on Rui Qi's computer. And, the program recorded the movement of the mouse while Billy Raffin was orally guiding Qiu Rui Qi in editing her photographs. The dots that the program recorded are the traces of the communication as well as the cooperation between two individuals.
Documentary of Nonvisual Photography Part 2
Performers: Ma Jian Ming, Qiu Rui Qi
Documentary Photographer: Liu Bo
Qiu Rui Qi closed her eyes during the shooting and Ma Jian Ming is a born blind Chinese man. They were in Beijing's park around the afternoon time in the summer of 2023. Jian Ming was taking a portrait of Rui Qi while Rui Qi was speaking Nanchangese (a dialect of Chinese). Jian Ming comes from the north of China and he can't understand Rui Qi's southern dialect. They tried to locate each other by the sound that they made.
Rui Qi's Portrait (2023)
Co-authors: Ma Jian Ming, Qiu Rui Qi
Qiu Rui Qi described all the photographs for Ma Jian Ming. Rui Qi explained the function of Photoshop to Jian Ming and she edited the photograph with the software for Jian Ming. He did not choose any blurry photograph or the person was not in a good position in the image.
TEXT & BRAILLE
The concept of this section is transforming photographs into text, and then translating the text into braille in different languages. There is no doubt that a person can shoot a great photograph without using her eyes. However, as the creator of the photograph, the photographer needs to feel and sense her own work. In this first step of the transformation of a photograph, the photographer can receive the information of her work through text. Also, with the printing of the braille, the photographer can enjoy her work with touch.
The Description of Billy‘s Portrait (2022)
Describer: Billy Raffin
English Braille Translator: Qiu Rui Qi
The image depicts a semi-transparent woman with her eyes closed, and holding something in her hands. The image is layered, and there are various semi-transparent layers depicting a park, some trees, and grass. There is also another layer depicting a different image of the same woman, but in black and white and in negative (colours inverted).
枘崎的肖像文字描述 (2023)
The Description of Ruiqi‘s Portrait
Describer: Qiu Rui Qi
Chinese Braille Translator: Ma Jian Ming
一个女人站在公园的树林里，位于画面中间。她穿着白色短袖，深绿色短裤，短发，左手戴着一支表。天色有些阴，天空被树林环绕遮挡，仅露出了一小片。画面远处有零星路人。
A short-haired woman stood in the woods of a park while in the middle of the photograph. She wore a white T-shirt, green short pants and a watch in her left hand. The weather was cloudy, and the sky was blocked by the trees only a small area could be seen. In the distance, some strangers were passing by.
Music
The concept of this section is transforming the braille into music. With different rules for braille, the dots can be transformed into diverse kinds of music. Through music, many visually impaired people could enjoy their photographs with a sense organ that they are more familiar with. On the other hand, sighted people is also able to enjoy photographs via a method that they do not usually use. Finally, researching multiple ways of transforming braille into music would also be a worthy direction to benefit education in braille. Could we find some interesting methods to help visually impaired people learn braille through Nonvisual Photography?
It is the first try by Qiu Rui Qi on transforming braille into music. The rules are as simple as the image showing on the left side:
"Do" refer to dot 1 (the top dot on the left line of the braille)
"Re" refer to dot 2 (the middle dot on the left line of the braille)
"Mi" refer to dot 3 (the bottom dot on the left line of the braille)
"Fa" refer to dot 4 (the top dot on the right line of the braille)
"So" refer to dot 5 (the middle dot on the right line of the braille)
"La“ refer to dot 6 (the bottom dot on the right line of the braille)
”Si“ refer to the space between two groups of braille.
Two Portraits: A piece of music from Braille description (2024)
Author: Qiu Rui Qi
Qiu Rui Qi did not receive any training in music, she followed her intuition to organize the notes from the braille descriptions of two portraits to make a piano piece with software.
Billy's Portrait: Great Octave, left hand
Rui Qi's Portrait: Small Octave, right hand
