Light Darkness Light

Decades after losing your eyesight, a revolutionary trial involving an implanted bionic eye promises you the sight of your granddaughter’s face for the first time ever. Would you take the opportunity? 
After living in darkness for nearly 40 years, Ian Nichols, a blind Anglican priest, becomes one of the first people in the world to receive an experimental bionic eye implant. At the age of 76, Nichols grapples with the profound change, as the groundbreaking scientific advancement offers hope alongside perplexing technical limitations. Audiences see what Nichols sees, as director Landon Van Soest presents impressionistic visualisations of Nichols’ enhanced sight, inviting questions about the nature of our perception.

The film will be introduced by professor Tsjalling Swierstra and after the screening we reflect on what we have seen, together with him.

Swierstra's field of interest is the ethics and the politics of new and emerging science and technology. He has published on moral controversies regarding cloning, new reproductive technologies, genomics, food technologies, nanotechnology, synthetic and system biology, artificial gametes, neuroscience, and converging technologies. The philosophical problematic driving his research is: how to analyse, evaluate, and anticipate the mutual shaping of science and technology (TechnoMoral Change), and ethics and politics. And how to make this anticipatory knowledge regarding ‘technomoral change’ available to technologists, policy makers, and the larger public. As part of this endeavour, he has authored reports and developed ‘technomoral’ scenarios for several public engagement events regarding genomics, nanotechnology, and synthetic biology.

In collaboration with Lumière Cinema.