Student-led public art installation in Providence offers a new perspective on visual impairment

Solomon was born legally blind with ocular albinism, which causes uncontrollable eye movements and makes him sensitive to light and unable to see details or depth. Originally from Miami, Solomon has spent his life cultivating a passion for education, policy and urban studies, driven by his experience as a blind person. It's a passion he's continually nurtured during his time at Brown, where he co-founded Blind@Brown while pursuing concentrations in political science and urban studies.

In fact, it was an introductory urban studies course that inspired the project. Students were required to conduct a study of a specific urban area, and Solomon chose the intersection of Angell and Thayer. After sitting there for hours, observing how people interact with the busy stretch of traffic, the seeds of project took root.

Solomon brought the idea to Goldemberg, a fellow Miami native studying materials engineering at Brown and apparel design at RISD, and Kartik, a disability advocate who co-founded Blind@Brown with Solomon and is pursuing an independent concentration in disability and design.

Together, the trio worked closely with student industrial designers and engineers, Brown faculty members, medical experts and the blind community to make their vision - a solutions-oriented, educational, accessible, engaging and fun public art installation - a reality.

Support from the Brown Arts Institute and the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity helped offset the costs of development, and the team worked with Providence's Department of Public Works to obtain a permit for its installation on the intersection's northwest corner, where it will remain through January 2025.

"['The Blind Urban Subject'] is particularly important because it helps us think about how we can best address the challenges we face," U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo said at the ceremony. "As a policymaker, that's part of the mission - not just to identify the problem, but to pursue solutions."

Do you see what I see?

Kartik said she was inspired by a conversation she heard during a vision-loss support group.

"They were talking about how there's a big disconnect between the sighted and blind communities," she said. "We saw our project as an opportunity to bridge that gap in understanding by sparking people's interest, then getting them to learn more about the blind community and confront any misconceptions that they may have about blindness."

One common myth is that blind people "see black" or nothing at all, said Goldemberg, who encountered that belief in courses where students designed products for blind people without sufficient input or adequate knowledge of vision impairments. The resulting designs were less effective and accessible, as they catered only to people who cannot see at all - a very small portion of the blind community.

As the project's design engineering director, it was crucial that Goldemberg understand what exactly blind and visually impaired people see. She was, quite literally, responsible for seeing the world through someone else's eyes. To better understand how each condition visually manifests, she interviewed blind and visually impaired people, devoured research and worked with Brown University Health ophthalmologists who advised on critical medical aspects of the project.

"We didn't want something 'like' cataracts or a 'generalized depiction' of glaucoma," Goldemberg said. "I wanted to ensure that we're presenting something to the world that is accurate."

Assistant Professor of Neurology and Surgery Dr. Tatiana Bakaeva was instrumental in helping Goldemberg make those translations. While working on a simulation of macular degeneration, which presents itself as a dark pit in the field of vision, Goldemberg said she was struggling with its presentation until she worked with Bakaeva.

Bakaeva helped unlock a major realization - that the tower required a divider between the eyes.

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