Landscapes made Visible: Seeing in the Mind’s Eye for the Non-congenitally Sight Impaired

Even when there is no vision through the anatomical eyes, people who are non-congenitally sight impaired often describe “visual” experiences of the landscape through “seeing in the mind’s eye”. This imaginative sight is a ‘way of seeing’ through eyes of another time and can be understood as a ‘phantom vision’. Intentionally imagined or unintentionally triggered, the qualities of “seeing in the mind’s eye” often change over time as visual memories fade and the nature of ‘the visual’ transfigures. These transfigurations warp normative sighted ontologies concerning the nature of visibilities, and the landscape is revealed differently. Drawing on sensory ethnography of the experience of the South Downs National Park in Sussex amongst walkers who have impaired vision, this paper explores these phenomena to address what this means for notions of landscape, the body, and the senses.
Keywords: Blindness, imagination, memory, landscape, senses

Sayantan Ghosh √ (Sociology, Hiralal Mazumdar Memorial College for Women, India)

Mobility in Blind Everyday : Possibilities and Challenges of an Olfactory Urban Planning

Mobility in urban every day is a sensory experience. We often use our senses of sight and hearing to move from one place to another. If a person is going to a place she would depend perhaps on her eyes more than other senses starting from numbers or routes written in bus, train - through sign boards to the number of building. The entire process is predominantly bisensual. Thanks to the monosensuality of urban planning. But what about those who are persons with visual impairment? Yes, sound and tactility do play significant roles but olfaction does have an important role in mobility of blind persons as well as in significant several other aspects of their everyday lives. This paper tries to sniff out blind every days and outline the role of smell in food, security, everyday purchase, identification, mobility and construction of identities. Secondly, 2.2 billion people in the world are visually impaired and 90% of them live in developing countries. Chances are high that a significant number of lives among those are unemployed / underemployed and /or they are not being able to rich to their full potential as well as they suffer from lack of freedom, inaccessibility and are unable to become self dependant.
In this context, I propose a multisensory urban planning in place of a monosensual or bisensual one. This paper is a humble introductory effort to explore challenges and possibilities of a fragrant city and /or of an olfactory urban planning which might have sheer significance for both persons with disability as well as for able bodied persons.
Keywords: Olfaction, Blind , Urban, Everyday, Mobility

Mathilde Carbonneau Loiselle ∆ (Faculté de l'Aménagement, Université de Montréal / Laboratoire CRESSON, AAU-Ambiances, ENSAG-Université de Grenoble-Alpes, France) Which Walkability for the Suburbs? Developing an Ambiance-based Approach to Walkability

This presentation aims to share the main results of my PhD thesis. The thesis foregrounds the potential role of sensory related criteria to enhance the walkability of suburban areas and to promote agency towards a shift in mobility habits. Traditional approaches to walkability rely essentially on morpho-functional aspects of the walking experiences. Suburban areas do not qualify as positive environments for walking if only considered through those dimensions. By better understanding social and sensorial aspects of the walking experiences, we end up creating a much wider set of tools to intervene for a better walkability of those environments. The approach also implies a redefinition of the roles associated with urban intervention, giving much more active role to inhabitants. Enhancing the walkability of suburban environments is of interest for climate action and for ensuring their inclusivity by promoting social connection and communitarian support.
Keywords: Walkability, ambiances, climate action, agency, creative methods