
|  | | Hands playing a piano |
|  | Howard Belgard, producer of the Sense of Place series, talks about why three students were able to give a very different perspective on their surroundings. |
 | |  | The trouble with doing a diary for the web page is that if you’re reading this and then you listen to the third programme in the series its going to give the game away to a certain extent. So if you like surprises and you’re planning on tuning in (of course you are) then STOP reading now!
As I mentioned earlier I was concerned that I was stuck in a rut as far as my definition of a sense of place was concerned. So I tried to stretch the definition by thinking what other sense’s of place there could be apart from location.
I wanted to explore the idea of a different "sensory" sense of place and I’d recently heard an old documentary called "Touching the elephant" where 3 blind people went to London Zoo and did just that – touched an elephant.
Although a little outdated and slightly patronising the idea set me thinking. Before I knew it, I was taking morning assembly in front of hundreds of students at RNIB New College Worcester.
I hate this word but I wanted to act as a facilitator, (there I said it.) as much as possible and with a small group of the older students – all of whom were visually impaired I wanted them to make the programme they felt best represented them.
After many meetings and discussions where I assured them that the BBC budget wouldn’t stretch to a sensory exploration of the Amazon rain forest, we decided on a very simple documentary format.
Basically the Head Boy John would interview three of his friends , Justin, Suna and Katy and they would take him to three of their favourite places. Simple enough – but they were adamant they wanted no reference to their disability at all.
So if you listen you’ll see that there isn’t – any reference to their disability that is. What does comes across though, which is what I suppose I imagined when considering a different sensory sense of place, is completely different description of locations than a sighted person would give, for instance Suna tells us how the carpet smells different in WH Smith.
If you listen carefully there are a number of "clues" to the students disability within the piece. Some of these were almost impossible to avoid as it was recorded in a fly on the wall style.
What I hope happens to the listener is that they are unaware that their other senses are being stimulated by the descriptions rather than just "seeing" them.
At the end of the programme we’re all sat round a campfire in Dinedor woods – its only then that these very articulate young people start addressing the prejudice they’ve experienced throughout their lives.
It says more about them than it does about the people who only define them through their disability that they can tackle this discrimination with laughter.
Transmission dates | | 28th April | Sixth Sense | | 5th May | Hospice | | 12th May | A student's view | | 19th May | Long Lartin | | 26th May | Meadow End | | 2nd June | The bench | All programmes go out at midday BBC Hereford and Worcester 94.7 104 and 104.6 FM |
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