Brittany Severance’s multimedia installation Blind/Blend (2019-2021) explores perceptual awareness. This project addresses the topic of visual acumen and alternate ways of seeing the world due to her own visual impairment. Through original stereo cards and layered photographs on silk, she invites the audience to engage in active forms of looking and perceiving the world around them.

By reversing the left and right sensory channels of a stereoscopic image, Severance’s photographs force the brain to misinterpret the distance of objects, switching the foreground and background in the images. Through this process, the stereoscopic images confuse the brain’s understanding of depth. Additionally, with the use of the Holmes stereo viewer, being able to slide the photos closer or away from the observer’s face while peering through the lenses is akin to visiting the optometrist. Just as the doctor tries different lenses with their patient’s eyes to find the perfect adjustment to see text (or in this case images) as they are intended, each individual will find their own optimal viewing position.

Alternatively, using soft and shallow focusing techniques with her camera, she subverts the audience’s expectations of a highly detailed visual experience. By lining up and creating gaps between the suspended layers of printed silk, these translucent fabrics provide a holographic effect. Spectators can move closer towards each portrait to gain clarity of the person’s features or away from the layers to see just general colors, lines, and shapes. Severance’s creation of this visual format forces the viewer to look for other ways to identify the subject from afar as she simulates the experience of someone with limited vision.

Through this near-sighted perspective, Severance invites the viewer to consider if it is important to recognize the exact identity of the represented image or can they accept it as something unique and beautiful on its own.