Collection: Global Perspectives on Social Enterprise
New social enterprise exhibition: How does it feel to navigate a city without your sight?
The Pioneers Post team ventures into absolute darkness on a recent visit to London’s Dialogue in the Dark sensory exhibition, and discovers how it feels to navigate a busy city without sight. Co-founder Huseyin Gunduzler explains how the social enterprise began – and why he hopes it will inspire a more accessible world.
When the Pioneers Post team arrive at SPACE studio in East London’s Hackney we are given white canes to hold in our left hands, taken behind a thick black curtain, and told that for the next hour we will be making our way around a city in complete darkness.
We’re at Dialogue in the Dark London: an immersive exhibition which aims to enhance people’s understanding of how it might feel to navigate a busy urban landscape if you are blind or visually impaired. It was first created as a social enterprise in Germany in 1988, and through a franchise model has since spread across the globe.
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One of the exhibition’s co-founders Huseyin Gunduzler tells Pioneers Post why he was inspired to bring Dialogue in the Dark to London after experiencing it for the first time in Istanbul, how it has inspired businesses to become more accessible, and his plans for scaling its reach.
Dialogue in the Dark London co-founders from left to right: Kerem Okumus, Huseyin Gunduzler and Hakran Elbir
And Nayoung Lee, one of the guides, explains how the experience enables people to understand how she feels navigating busy city scenarios – and to learn more about their own senses.
Join us on an adventure into the dark and listen to the podcast in full above.
Huseyin (top left) and a some of the Dialogue in the Dark guides
Find out more about Dialogue in the Dark and book your place on the experience here.
Header image: a picture of the Dialogue in the Dark lobby
*Update since recording: we can now confirm that Huseyin is in fact 26 years old!
