Busy Being Blind
20231210 13:08-16:05
Last week, while organizing my things, I found two broken iPhones beyond repair. I bought hot glue and safety goggles and glued the phones onto the goggles.
I put on the goggles, held a trekking pole in my right hand as a white cane, and set off from PLAYground Theatre.
If I tilted my head and peeked with one eye, I could glimpse the road through gaps. Looking straight ahead, all I could see was a blur of colors.
At the bus stop in front of the theater, a woman guessed I was experiencing what it’s like to be blind, because blue light from phones is harmful to eye health.
An older woman sitting under a tree asked if I could see. I tilted my head until I could meet her gaze and said, “Yes—like this.” She said she had a phone too and often stared at it. Finally, she asked, “Where are you going?” I said I wasn’t sure, just wandering and chatting with whoever I meet.
The bottom edge of the goggles completely blocked my view of the ground. At one point, I misstepped but didn’t fall.
A foreign man and a Taiwanese woman approached. The man asked why I was doing this. The woman thought I was navigating with the phone cameras. He asked if I was an artist. I replied, “Everyone is an artist.” I said everyone’s eyes are on their phones, not the world. He smiled and said, “But we saw you!”
We talked about how phones and algorithms shape what we see. The woman said she always fact-checks, but felt that even with so much fake news, people mainly look for whatever confirms their beliefs. Sometimes, she and her friends say odd keywords near their phones, and soon after, related content appears.
When I was trying to show them, the goggles slipped and fell, and one of the phones came loose. I kept walking.
I took the MRT at Taipei 101 station. Just before getting off, I stood up, and only then did people notice me. A man by the door looked surprised. When I asked if he was curious, he guessed I was trying to protect my eyes.
I got off at Daan Forest Park Station and went to a convenience store to buy super glue to stick the dropped phone back to the right lens. For the next 30 to 40 minutes, every breath through my nose and mouth stung. My right eye hurt so much I couldn’t open it. I thought to myself, how did people ever get high from sniffing glue?
At a bus stop, I asked an older woman which bus she was waiting for. She said 642 and asked about mine. When I said 652, she offered to watch for it and asked about my eyes. She added that she doesn’t spend much time on her phone. When her bus arrived, we said goodbye.
On the bus, no one spoke to me. I got off at a bus stop located on the median strip. A woman said, “The light is green now. Do you need help?” I took off the goggles and told her I could see.
She thought it was an experiment with assistive tech for the blind. She had surgery for severe myopia, and when it comes to technology, she’s sometimes cautious, sometimes drawn in.
I realized the glue was still wet, hence the stench. I aired it out for a while before putting the goggles back on.
A man raised his camera. I nodded, and he took the shot. He asked, “Is this VR?”
I walked back to Chifeng Street. After pacing on a wooden platform for a while, I took off the goggles and noticed an older woman staring at me. She said real emotional connections between people have grown thin. Two of her friends had been scammed by strangers on Facebook. Turns out she also lived in Zhongshan, right next door to my building.
Unlike past performances, this time I felt the frowns and stares coming at me directly, not just when people glanced back after passing.
Afterwards, I couldn’t focus my vision properly for nearly ten minutes. My eyes felt like they might pop out of their sockets. My neck also ached.
Ann said that a passerby behind me muttered, “She must be a robot.”
Special thanks for documentation: Ann
