Touch, Hear, Feel – Exhibition

Discover Touch, Hear, Feel, an immersive exhibition exploring the power of touch and the felt sense, featuring stories and insights from blind and partially sighted people.

Touch, Hear, Feel is a Belfast 2024 commission, conceived by lead artist Helen Hall and produced in association with Belfast International Arts Festival.

Touch, Hear, Feel explores the theme of touch and the felt sense. It reconsiders the way we experience art, beyond the visual, by contemplating how we can engage our other senses.

The first part of the work was the creation of an immersive dance performance, choreographed by Helen Hall.  This took place in a site-specific location on Corporation Street, reimagining another use for an old building.

A series of co-designed workshops and interviews with the blind and partially sighted community informed the work. As a severely partially sight person, Helen was keen to hear from others about what their experience was of the theme of touch and the felt sense. Conversations ranged from the functionality of touch, to the felt sense of touch experienced with the whole body, to the more emotional, ‘human’ side of touch.  Helen became interested in how all of these factors play a large part in how we negotiate the world around us.

The performance of Touch, Hear, Feel took the audience on a multi-sensory journey through some of these ideas along with Helen’s experience as a partially sighted dancer in how she negotiates the world of a performance. The work offered experimental audio description, to be more inclusive of an audience who are blind or partially sighted.

This exhibition is the second part of the work and features some of the stories that were gathered during the workshops and interviews with blind and partially sighted people.  It includes elements of the set from the dance performance.

Access Information

Wheelchair access is available via entrance on Library Street.

Commissioned by Belfast 2024

Touch, Hear, Feel was developed in a series of co-designed workshops with the blind and partially sighted community, in collaboration with the RNIB, Open Arts and University of Atypical. Their diverse perspectives and lived experiences form the heart of the project.

Cast and Creative Team

Created and Choreographed by Helen Hall

Dancers Helen Hall, Rachael Lindsay, Maeve McGreevy

Access Advisors Andrea Hope, Josephine McCormack, Margaret Mann

Dramaturg Hannah Slättne 

Set and Costume Design Tracey Lindsay

Set Builders Steve Bamford, Callum Stanley

Set Painter Kathryn Boyle

Costume Maker  Niamh Kearney

Lighting Design  Jonathan M. Daley

Voice Over Janie Doherty

Composer and Sound Design  Rory Friers

Audio Description Helen Hall in collaboration with Hanna Slättne

Stage Manager Caoimhe McGee

Lighting and Sound Operator  Aaron Ross

Sign Language Interpreter Steven Conlon

Venue Manager Becky Turnock/Smallworld

Promotional Photography  Neil Harrison

Technical Director Phil McCandlish

Assistant Producer Dermot McGowan

Executive Producer  Richard Wakely