Eye Dances

Disclaimer: This piece is based on a recollection of a news story from the early 00s that I've read as a kid. The funny thing is - now I can't find any verifiable information about this initiative. Zhytomyr newspapers never were into the digitization of their archives, and since I vaguely recall that it was somewhere around 2002-03 - even if I could find the source - it would have been lost to time at this point almost for sure. So it is basically a myth. Or a simulacrum, an attempt to make sense of a distant memory.

But even if it is made up - the idea is still worth thinking about for a bit. That's why I've tried to conjure it back into existence.

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2000s were rough for the Ukrainian medical system. By then, it was still deep in the soviet paradigm, but the world around it was different, and so it was barely operating at the required level. Money and resources were always a problem. There were not enough of both. Everyone was overworked and underpaid. So there were a lot of volunteers who tried their best to make a difference.

One such group was dealing with various partially or entirely paralyzed patients in Zhytomyr City Hospital. The problem was that those patients were bored and had barely any means of passing the time in-between the procedures, which wasn't very good for their morale. What can be worse than a depressed, paralyzed person? The volunteers were there to offer moral support and some routine care.

One way or another, it all came to one particularly oddball initiative.

The idea was to make patients experience fun and the world around by moving eyes in specific patterns. It was something like eye dances. I assume that it was a part of some routine to keep eye muscles from atrophy. Albeit embellished with some sleek conceptual art presentation.

Its goal was to engage paralyzed patients who could only move their eyes. By moving them in a particular way - it would be as if they interacted with the world, digested information differently. So it would not be as sad for them to be in the permanent lockout of the world due to their unfortunate condition.

The whole thing's presentation was like an old school Fluxus score. There were randomized patterns of dots and lines with directional arrows. The sheets were probably around A4 or A5 format so that there would be quite a pattern.

One could follow it through, probably get tired by doing it and go on contemplating the experience. From this point of view - it looks like some exercise.

What is left unknowable is how it was "received" by the target audience. Or even - was it even possible to understand whether or not this thing was actually useful? For me, the whole thing seems like a huge stretch, and I doubt it was genuinely helpful. It is hard to believe that those patients were into such stuff.

I think it was one of the many ideas that were tried once or twice and then abandoned without a second thought. It is just that this particular thing was written about, and by coincidence, I happened to read it back then. Now, reading about AvantAppalachia disabled issue - the association brought it back.