Group tries upside down existence

The group have seen each other upside down for eight days

A group of volunteers have spent more than a week with their world turned upside down - all in the name of art.

Visual artist Carsten Holler recruited the group to wear goggles which makes everything appear inverted

His volunteers have been living under the same roof for eight days, blind folded at night, in pursuit of conquering a new vision.

They were removing the goggles on stage on Thursday night as part of a visual arts show at Manchester Opera House.

The volunteers have had assistants to help them live with inverted vision, but have had to wear the goggles at all times during the day.

Walking under trees is really nice because it feels like you are walking through the leaves Ben Hargrave, volunteer

Volunteer Alan Cook told the BBC it had been a challenging experience.

"Because of the blinkers on the side and underneath to make sure that you can't see anything but the mirrors it's very confined so you just have a strip of vision," he said.

"So if you want to see anything in particular you have to really swing your head about."

Activities and entertainments were scheduled with the goggle-wearers as part of their inverted world experience.

Artist Carsten Holler recruited the volunteers

Another volunteer, Ben Hargrave, said: "On the first day we went to Piccadilly station and going up escalators was like going vertically up and at the top it looked like you were going to go over yourself backwards.

"Walking under trees is really nice because it feels like you are walking through the leaves," he added.

The group were appearing in Il Tempo Del Postino, a group art show, at the opera house as part of the Manchester International Festival.

Festival director Alex Poots said the essence of the project was to provide a novel experience for an audience.

"The work, by 14 very different artists, includes performers, light, sound an orchestra - so every sense is being explored," said Mr Poots.