This exhibition was the first of three visits of the day. The moment I entered the gallery, I found myself surrounded by darkness, and the only source of light came from a television monitor placed on the floor. This was the first thing which caught my attention and I was attracted by what was on display. Attached to the monitor was a special camera which was able to take in light from different ends of the spectrum the human eye cannot and turn it into graphic images via the monitor. The monitor showed the art-piece at the end of the gallery-this was only one way to look at this art-piece. Then without looking at the monitor I tried to look towards the end of the gallery and after a lapse of adaptation, my eye was able to make out what seemed to be a wall with illuminating dots, but they were so faint that the room seemed to be in complete darkness. Finally I took out my camera and used it as another way to look at the art-piece. This time I was able to clearly see the dots, and the dots appeared in colours of purple, red and blue.
Through the transformation of the architecture of the gallery, Hope is is trying to convey two key messages. The first being that he hopes to incorporate the audience of the exhibition as part of the equation to the piece as one must physically visit the gallery in order to experience all aesthetic impacts of the piece-merely looking at pictures will not give the audience the experience of all the different aspects mentioned above. This is unlike some other exhibitions of paintings, sculptures etc. where one will be able to enjoy a similar experience through looking at images of the exhibits and physically visiting the gallery. Second Hope is trying separate the art-piece installation into two worlds: the human vision of blindness and the machine world's vision.
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