SENSE AND SENSIBILITY" : SPATIAL EXPERIENCE OF THE VISUALLY-IMPAIRED IN SINGAPORE"

Abstract

Study of the senses in geographical experience is often found lacking. This lacunae is both surprising and understandable. It is surprising because our daily spatial experiences are rich in sensory encounters, yet it is often neglected by geographers. It becomes understandable, however, when we reflect upon the dominance of sight. Vision plays an important role in our everyday experiences with the environment, and geography is to a large extent a visual discipline. The persistence of the ideology of the visual is problematic as it encourages geographical scholarship to continue to neglect the role of all senses in the structuring and experiencing of space and place, while at the same time marginalising people who are visually-impaired. The main thrust of this thesis is to challenge the visual biasness in geographical research by highlighting the important contribution of sound, smell and touch in the geographical experience of sightlessness. At the same time, this study hopes to contribute to the humanistic understanding of the visually-impaired in Singapore. Using a number of research techniques such as in-depth interview, focus group discussion, participant observation and textual analysis, this study first examines how the social and physical organisation of public spaces have disadvantaged the visually-impaired. By reading the city as a disablist text, it will further show how the visually-impaired are able to re(script) the city-text and produce 'alternative' sensuous geographies using their available senses. This study will also examine how the visually-impaired copes with their marginality when interacting with sighted people. Concepts such as 'sensuous geographies', 'landscape-as-text' and Goffman's ideas on the 'social presentation of self (body)' will be used to structure my discussion. At the conceptual level, this study addresses the politics of the senses by highlighting the visual biasness found in contemporary culture. At the empirical level, this study is concerned with the politics of marginality by focusing on the spatial and social strategies of the visually-impaired. To this end, this thesis hopes to bring out the intricate relationship between our sense(s) and sensibility, more specifically our non-visual senses and social sensibilities when thinking about sightlessness.