BlindWiki: Venice Through the Voices of the Blind

BlindWiki, an app-based project by artist Antoni Abad (born 1956 in Lleida), transforms Venice into an intimate theater of hidden signs and potential images. Developed in 2015 with Sapienza University of Rome, the Accademia, and the Spanish Embassy for the Romaeuropa Festival, BlindWiki is an atlas of geolocated audio recordings shared by blind and visually impaired citizens via smartphone. The project arrived in Venice during the opening of the Biennale and runs from May 13 to November 26, 2017, as a collateral event and Catalan national participation. A live performance, curated by Mery Cuesta and Roc Parés and supported by the Institut Ramon Llull, takes visitors on a boat tour of the canal, departing from the dock opposite Base Camp at the Cantieri Navali. Six guests at a time board the boat while a blind or visually impaired narrator shares their journey, recounting experiences and memories. The app allows users to navigate the city guided by voices that describe thoughts, opinions, experiences, memories, and information about architectural barriers, offering a new subjective geographical and metropolitan writing. The project invites sighted people to be transported by those who see differently, leveraging the power of evocation and other heightened senses.