The Disordered Eye
BBC Four
The interesting premise of The Disordered Eye (4 November) is that in fact there is no such thing in art or life as a disordered eye (or, for that matter, an ordered one): because what we think we see is as much about our knowledge of the world as it is about the workings of the optical nerve, and we are interpreting the world from what we already understand of it. Or, as presenter Richard Butchins puts it, “we see with our brains”.
As a disabled film-maker (or in his own words, “neuro-divergent” – he lost the use of his arm after a childhood bout of polio) Butchins is interested in how what we are led to think is a deficiency – in this case the impairment of sight – can become the source of inspiration, revealing a whole new way of experiencing the material world.