The BBC’s Touching the Elephant was a documentary in which four blind people encounter an Elephant named Dilberta at London Zoo. The idea for the documentary comes from a widely diffused Indian folktale in which a group of blind men conceptualise an elephant by touching each part of its body.
I found this documentary to be particularly moving and thought provoking. Imagining what something looks like from nothing is an alien, confusing and strange to think about – it is exciting and imaginative but strange. Bonnie M Miller states that “Pictures are better on the radio”, this is a beautiful thought – this made me think about how focusing down on one sense can be an incredible imaginative tool. Through this piece I’ve found that the real beauty of radio is that you’re forced into this – nearly obstruction like mode, which is totally creatively stimulating