Andrea Magdalena Jónsdóttir

Allt sem er grænt, grænt
finnst mér vera fallegt
Bréfaskriftir um fegurð

This MA thesis is a qualitative artistic research based on the research question: What happens when two individuals correspond about beauty and one of them is blind but the other is not? This research attempts to analyze how blind and sighted people perceive beauty and the role of the diverse senses in their perception. The participants are five artists between the age of 17 and 73 years old. One of them plays the main role. It is a woman born blind who corresponds separately with each of the other four participants in the research. In daily life, focus on the visual aspects is strong and looking deeper into this aspect is one of the main objectives of this research.

The research is mirrored in the works of visual artists, poets and a qualitative research where the main data was collected by using correspondence. Grounded theory was used to analyze the data in this research by using thematic analysis. By doing that, similar ideas appeared. Using correspondence as data is unusual in qualitative research but it was useful in this research since the participants did not know each other and they remained anonymous.

The findings of the research show how five artistic individuals perceive beauty and the outcome shows that the difference was not significant. Explaining what beauty is, proved to be difficult for the participants, even though everyone had an answer for it. Remaining anonymous through the correspondence gave the participants freedom. Some shared confidential issues or secrets that they would not have shared otherwise. The participants knew all along that they would not meet the other person or know who he or she is. Very few grade schools in Iceland touch upon philosophy where discussion on phenomenal subjects or objects are brought about. Ways to approach the topic are discussed.