In Motion: An Adaptation of Enriched and Inclusive Audio Description Practices

Abstract

In Motion is an audio-described video piece that applies techniques from audio-described museum tours. The piece, sound recording, and audio description were done by the author, allowing for an enriched audio description, which combines the practice of verbally describing images with sound recordings and personal insights from the author/describer. I propose that audio description (AD) can advance social justice since it can only exist if it includes disability justice and provides an opportunity for embodied reflexivity through art-based practices. In Motion is representative of how accessibility can be part of the creative process and not an afterthought. It also shows how audio description can advance social and disability justice.

Curatorial Statement

In Motion is presented as an audio-described prerecorded tour of an art gallery. It includes a preamble and a description of each image (Figiel & Albin, 2022; Taylor & Perego, 2021) to consider not only access to the images but also the wider involvement of experiencing the work (Eardley et al., 2017). The piece builds on the idea of access as a creative, curatorial, and aesthetic practice (Cachia, 2019; Caro, 2016; Cooley & Fox, 2014; Hutchinson & Eardley, 2019; Romero-Fresco, 2021).

In Motion looks at how accessibility can and should be an entry point, rather than an afterthought. This piece asks: what can be learned from the intersection of embodied arts-based practices with/in disability arts and culture? Taking up Petra Kuppers’ (2014) invitation, I reconsider notions of what “the subject matter [of artwork] should be” (Kuppers, 2014, p. 32) and how “disabled artists and their allies challenge and query the knowledge that governs how we see what it means to be human, but also how we see artwork itself” (Kuppers, 2014, p. 33). In Motion combines images, sound, and audio that were captured with equipment I have at home (e.g., my phone and a mic) with a combination of techniques (e.g., embedded, closed and open captioning and audio description) as part of the creative process. The final product allows each individual to access and experience the work differently.

In Motion has inclusive audio description (AD). AD is the practice of orally describing visual information, traditionally created to provide access to audiences who are blind or partially sighted. I approach AD as an “aesthetic performance” of its own (Kleege & Wallin, 2015, para. 3) that has the potential to offer both the describer—in this case, the artist/author—and the consumer different ways of learning, processing information, and accessing their senses (Kuppers, 2022). The AD of In Motion plays with the notion of enriched audio description (Eardley et al., 2017; Taylor & Perego, 2021), which provides a multisensorial experience by including sound recordings (i.e., birds, steps, breaths, etc.). Since the AD is not an add-on, but integral to the work, In Motion provides a transcript of the audio description, as well as a combination of embedded, open, and closed captioning to engage a broader audience, increase accessibility, and provide different entry points into the work.

Access is never a monolith; it is unique to the individual. By becoming more “attentive to inaccessibility” and constantly seeking “ways to create more accessible [dance] practices” (Acton, 2021, p. 68) that challenge ableism, we begin to bring forward a notion of embodied reflexivity that considers social interactions and dynamics through our different embodiments. By challenging ableism through the process of providing AD, we move from equity to justice (Fryer & Cavallo, 2021; Pérez-González, 2019). During the entire process of creating and designing In Motion, I considered and addressed the causes of inequity from the ground up. Through this approach, we not only bring those who cannot see into the artwork but we allow the piece to provide new layers and ways of processing information that benefit sighted, blind, and partially sighted audiences alike (see Cachia, 2019, 2021; Kleege, 2018; Kleege & Wallin, 2015; Kuppers, 2022; Snyder, 2008).

In Motion de-centers sight as a way of accessing art as the norm and, thus, is representative of how accessibility practices can be incorporated into artwork from the creative process, rather than as an afterthought. In doing so, In Motion advances social and disability justice and brings forward a notion of self-reflexivity that considers different forms of embodiment and how we shape and are shaped by collective and relational ways of thinking, learning, and experiencing artworks. Please access In Motion (https://vimeo.com/797202088/26b88b04e0) and perhaps you will find yourself newly in motion through multiple senses.