1. Visionary Sight

What happens when an artist’s sight begins to disappear?

In the first episode of Start Making Sense, Professor Tom Shakespeare explores how sight loss changes the way artists experience the world and create art. Tom travels to Somerset to meet contemporary British painter Angela Charles, who uses technology, memory and her remaining vision to paint. Blind photographer Pete Eckert reveals how he ‘paints with light’ and explains how he captures a scene in his mind’s eye and transfers it to the sighted world. Meanwhile, sculptor Aaron McPeake invites gallery visitors to touch, strike and listen to his work. He doesn't believe that art is something we simply look at, but should involve all of our senses.

Along the way, writer and disability studies scholar Georgina Kleege challenges some of the myths surrounding sight loss and asks us to reconsider what we take for granted about how art should be experienced. Professor of Philosophy Bence Nanay also teaches us about what the mind's eye actually is.

Tom Shakespeare is a sociologist and ethicist who collaboratively researches with disabled people, and thinks a lot about the role of disability in culture, including the arts. He is Professor of Disability Research at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Over three episodes in Start Making Sense, Tom explores the role of the senses through the work of disabled artists, past and present. He will cover sight, touch and pain, and hearing.

Presenter: Tom Shakespeare
Producer: Emily Uchida Finch
Exec Producer: Mark Rickards
Sound Design: Brian Mc Namara
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4