HIDE AND SEEK

So the book is finally finished! All the hard work and set backs really paid off! I hope you all enjoy it and can relate!!

What is this book about?
Looking back through my diverse experiences, I want to convey a sense of unity. Each experience relates to blindness. It could mean physical blindness or blindness in not noticing what’s around you. I hope you can identify through my experiences. So explore, enjoy, and experience!

My Thoughts After Finishing the Book
I am very proud of the ending product of this book. I honestly bared my soul in this book. I'm very private about my life and for me to expose my thoughts, my experiences and feelings was a big deal for me. It definitely brought me a sense of peace within myself. I been guarded for so long, this book released everything that was inside me that I didn't even know! This book is not the end but the beginning of my new life as a secure adult with no more worries about what the world thinks. I definitely will continue to update this book with new experiences in my free time. It's like my online sketchbook =]

It's definitely an experience I will never forget. This book is very emotionally to me and I treat this book like it's my baby. I hope that through this book, people can also feel free about their life and not let society hold them back in being different and embrace who they are.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Credits


P.S THANK YOU POLLY FOR PUSHING ME THROUGHOUT THIS WHOLE PROCESS!

Process

(1)


(2)


(3)

Sketches


FINAL SPREADS

Missing in Action

So during spring break, I lost my camera [again]. It kind of set me back with my work but some how I make the best of it. Luckily I saved most of my files in my hard drive from my previous experiences so I’m not in that much trouble. So what’s the problem? For some of the images I wanted to take and have yet to take I have to retrace my steps to get the right image.

I always seem to encounter a set back for the things I worked so hard for in my life. I think in some ways it taught me to appreciate things more. It’s also sort of a constant reminder for me not to take a lot of things for granted.

I hope the saying its true what they say, “the third luck is the charm”

Sixth Experience

"Walk In My Shoes"
I must honestly say shoes have been a big part of my life. Not just any shoes, mostly sneakers like nike's, air jordans, reeboks, pumas, ect. I've collected sneakers since I was 12 and I stopped a few years ago because it doesn't matter to me anymore.

When I was thinking about an experience, I thought about all the things I been through and how each shoe I see in my closet reminds me of it. I've had the best and worst experiences with each shoe I've collected over the years. I wanted to relate this experience with the topic of blindness and how people don't understand what you go through until they experience it themselves or see it through your perspective (which rarely happens).


Picture Taken in 05' I own 20-30 pairs from this collection now





Connection
The connection I made was how much more I cared about the experience i had with each shoe than the shoe itself. I think that's why I sold some of them or given them away a few years ago because i was letting go of a lot of things that happened in my life. I don't think I can forget the things that happened but I definitely moved on and changed. Growing up in new york, the culture and the people get to you sometimes in a negative way and when I left new york the things i use to care about are meaningless now. Shoes aren't as important to me like the way they were when i was 15.

FINAL SPREADS

Fifth Experience

Blindness Survey
I wanted to expand on my topic so i decided to ask people 2 simple questions, one of them is about their point of view about blindness. I found some very interesting answers and from there I gathered some ideas and connections.

The Questions:
1. If you could live without one of your senses, which one would it be?
2. What does blindness mean to you?

Best Responses:


Connection:
I guess, the biggest connection I made was with certain responses-especially to those people I'm close with. It was almost as if we share the same point of view. Overall, I liked seeing everyone's unique response; some copied others and it reminded me how society is at times; some people are afraid to be wrong or open their minds because they might be the only ones; others that I couldn't understand or felt disappointed because it was a definition more than their thought. And then there are those who aren't afraid to make an opinion and stand by it.

PROCESS


FINAL SPREADS

What is Blindness?

1. I started my expansion by researching and interviewing people with and without impaired vision. I'm not quite sure where it's taking me yet but I'm gathering a lot of ideas and images from what people experience and what I think...

2. So going away from researching blindness even more, I was looking through all my experiences and connections and realized that they each relate to one another and have some sort of blindness characteristic.
ex: challenges, alone, boundaries

Not only did they relate to "blindness", my experiences also relate to my personal experiences or memories. And so from all this i am developing a web of connections and I will see where this will take me.

I want to show people what they don't see everyday (of me) and how that is my blindness. my private life.

still in progress...

Expansion

I choose to expand my first exploration [blindness] from the 4 explorations. I think the reason why I chose this is because it's the most personal experience I can connect with and understand. When I first came across this experience the first thing that came into my mind was my older sister. And I thought that through her experience I could find something that can lead me to my expansion.

My Process Outline:


What is Keratoconus?


What do they see?

Normal Vision

Keratoconus (Mild)

Keratoconus (High)

"the way light bounces in your eye doesn't get bounced back normally, instead it refracts all over"

How could I relate this to design?
Something my sister said that got my brain thinking:
"I'm still analyzing and dealing with it, a lot of disabilities are induced with denial because you went from normal to not and society is very cut and dry about being normal. People with disabilities get pushed away and forgotten."

How could we (designers/everyone) help?
_Provide enlarged handouts (A3 from A4)
_Use black markers on whiteboards, rather than red or green.
_Write large and legibly on boards.
_Provide sight of hard copy of OHP slides during session, e.g. the originals.
_Ensure that student has good lighting. A small reading lamp may be helpful. Glare from sunlight can be problematic.
_Accept homework/assignments word-processed. (This allows a large font to be used and then reduced.)
_Enlarge exam papers.
_Ensure that the edges of stairs have a contrasting colour, otherwise they may look like a long ramp!
_Allow more time, where necessary, for moving around the building. Crowds can be disconcerting.

P.S I'm still exploring more...

FINAL SPREADS

Fourth Experience

Exploration #8 Cracks
Map out pavement cracks in your neighborhood.

So I walked around my "neighborhood" for not even a minute until I noticed my first crack on the sidewalk.
I was interesting to see and also boring at the same time. The whole time I was thinking "what connection am I going to get out of this?" So I started asking myself questions like, where does it begin and end? How do cracks even happen? And I took it from there..



So I first documented what it looked like overall, and the I documented where I thought it started and where it ended. And lastly, I documented in detail what it looked like. I guess from this exploration I learned to trust myself in questioning and it's okay not to know all the answers right away. But to remind myself how important questions are for any process.

FINAL SPREAD

Third Experience

Since I been sick for almost 2 weeks I have some restriants on exploring whats outside my room. So i decided to explore where i been sitting mostly for the past two weeks, my bed. I'm suppose to be on bed rest for a week but each day gets harder because I'm tired of resting and I just want to get better now!

I will document this experience in my sketchbook, I'll probably be doing a lot more writing than documenting in pictures.









Making the connection was pretty obvious for me. Well first I haven't left my room to experience other "adventures" that I planned before, I had to rearrange and work with what I had. My room has been "my place" for quite some time after being in my room for a week straight recovering from my sickness I got so sick and tired of it. I can't stand to be there all day! So as much as I love my room, I did hate it for some time.



FINAL SPREADS