Stereo Blindness

What would it be like to experience Stereo Blindness? Someone with this condition loses the ability to successfully navigate the world with the use of depth perception. They see our 3D world in 2D where almost everything is flat like a painting. Oliver Sacks shares in his book The Mind’s Eye that a person may see objects that are actually far away as being close up. One of his patients recalls that the steering wheel of her car typically appeared flat and did not “pop out” as she realized it did once her eyes were cured and she gained full stereopsis.

With this digital composite, I look to emulate these concepts so those of us who are not Stereoblind may gain an understanding of how the world may look through the eyes of another. To obtain this goal was difficult because a photo is already in the 2D so how do you make it appear flatter than it already is?

As you can see, through the windshield to the exterior, there is a Covid-19 testing sight with many cones and barricades. Several of these barricades, even one person (an Army Reserve Soldier) seem to be floating within the scene and not nailed down to where they are in the distance. The sign to the left that says, “Keep Windows Closed…” seems to be like a registration sticker on the windshield, and not a sign standing outside the car like it actually is. As we move to the interior: the steering wheel, navigation screen, a/c vents, stereo, and some panels all appear flat. Everything appears to be compressed and lack depth.

 

A second experiment in Stereo Blindness…

This second work focuses on depth perception for a stereo blind pedestrian. I based this interpretation from a YouTube video of a young woman who explains what is like to live with this condition. From what I gather she could not gauge where curbs or walls actually are in space. She also struggled with having both her eyes line up correctly to work as a team.