8th November
As I See It is a project created by Terra Incognita to explore the city of Glasgow through the eyes, so to speak, of the visually impaired. Visually impaired volunteers participated in a series of workshops exploring their experience of Glasgow, the sounds, smells, tastes and feels, as well as the difficulties they face within the city every day. The culmination of this was a day of walking tours, led by these guides and their stories around Kelvingrove Park.
Of course, in Glasgow, any outdoor undertaking is risky. In typical fashion, as we gather for the third and final tour of the day by the war memorial of the sitting soldier in Kelvingrove Park, the heavens open in the heaviest downfall Glasgow has seen so far this autumn. Terra Incognita however will not be dampened by a little rain. Instead, the tour moves to inside a pub, and in some ways its significance may have more impact this way. Suddenly, the audience are hypothetically touring outdoor spaces they cannot see, although comprehending the experience of losing sight is much greater than talking about and imagining a place you are not in.
The guides and their stories are gripping, as evinced not only by the audience members who signed up for the tour, but by the other punters in the pub who start to listen, turn their chairs around and lose themselves in the stories of their city.
For a sold out show with so much to offer, we can only hope that Terra Incognita will create an event like this again.
[Emma Ainley-Walker – @emaw23]
qmunicatemagazine.com 