Sophie Ana Paris: Midterm Portfolio – #5 Audio Descriptions of Captions

Assignment #5. REMIX: AUDIO DESCRIPTIONS OF CAPTIONS

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JM45oviRira97Upu3iZbx2zD9DGC0QoL/view?usp=share_link

 

 

• What is the theme of the work? What is it you aim to express?
  • The theme of this piece is the rapid jump between different emotions that happens very frequently throughout the original scene. In my original piece, I used emojis to highlight the emotional tone of what the actors were saying. For this remix, I am aiming to more abstractly represent all the different emotions that are constantly shifting abruptly throughout the scene. The idea is that when watching this video, there is an intense emotional feeling that is felt, or at least, understood, at each point, despite not actually knowing what exactly is going on. 
• How is that theme particularly expressed through the modality of the week?
  •  Through this remix video, the rapid and blunt shift in emotions at any given second is expressed through the rapid and blunt shift in both the visual scene and in the background music. The goal is to convey the emotion and the frequent changes, but to also leave it up to the audience to interpret what they believe it to be, allowing for a more subjective and interpretive experience of interacting with this piece. 
• Which elements of the work are beautifully/wonderfully/perfectly expressed through the modality?
  • I think the emotions and the shifts in the emotions are conveyed especially well through the background music in the video. The blunt transitions represent the blunt change of pace, tone, and emotion that occurs in the original video well, conveying a clear shift in tone to the audience, while still being a little confusing, funny, and intense as the original scene is. 
• Which elements are lost or inexpressible through the modality of the week?
  • I decided to completely remove any of the original video or audio for this piece, and make it abstract, allowing the audience to decipher for themselves what is actually going on. In doing this, the actual content of the original scene is completely lost, but the idea was to explore the way the audience would be able to interpret different visual and audial cues. 
• Who does this project exclude? Who would not be able to interact with this work ? Who is this modality not accessible for?
  • While it does not explicitly “exclude” people who have not ever watched the original scene before, it certainly provides a very different experience in interacting with and understanding this piece than those who have seen the original scene before. For those who know the storyline of the original scene, it is probably much easier to figure out what is going on in this remix piece. Additionally, while I attempted to create a similar level of understanding and interpretive freedom/clarity for people who would only be watching the video and for people who would only hear the audio, I think that it would be a lot harder to understand what was going on in this piece by watching only video without the audio. The audio of the piece is much more clearly conveying the emotion and what is being felt at each moment than the video. I decided that I did not want to use any video of people, as I wanted it to be more abstract and not just a montage of different facial expressions, so I challenged myself to only use video clips that didn’t have people in them. This proved to be a lot harder than I expected, and resulted in this probably being harder for someone who is d/Deaf or hard of hearing to understand this piece as well. 
  • Now that you’ve identified who is excluded, what is one way you could remix this piece to include another population? (You don’t have to make this part, but think about it and write about it) 
    • Adding some more description or scenes that convey the message more clearly would definitely make this piece easier to understand. However, the intention was to make this piece more abstract, so it would take away from the ability for the audience to interpret for themselves what was happening, as I had intended.   
• For the remixes: what is lost and what is gained in this remix? What did you have to leave behind and what could you take with you?
  • As I mentioned above, the storyline of what was actually happening in the original scene was mostly (if not completely) lost. However, the idea was to give over a similar viewing experience but to allow the audience to interpret and interact with the piece in the way that they personally understand it. 

 

 

Reading Response: 

 A New Model for Access in the Museum, Carmen Papalia 

• A brief summary – what was it about? 
• One takeaway – a professional insight you draw from the reading, and that you think will be useful to keep in mind in the near or distant future 
• Connection to a real-world example – this could be something you thought of while reading, something that is similar that reminds you of something in the field, a connection to another reading/discussion from class 
• A burning question that remains with you after reading

 Summary:

• The article by Carmen Papalia discusses the experience of visiting museums through his eyes as a blind artist. It explores the limitations faced by museum visitors in engaging with art beyond simply visual observation, and highlights the need for more inclusive and interactive museum experiences. He talks about personal experiences and insights to challenge traditional museum practices and suggests alternative innovative ways to engage with art. Carmen Papalia essentially is challenging traditional museum rules and advocating for a more engaging and accessible approach to interacting with and experiencing art.

Takeaway:

• My biggest takeaway from this article is the need for museums to create experiences and ways of interacting with art that are not just visual. I think that specifically this article prompted me to think about the fact that art museums, which are supposed to be inherently creative spaces, are stuck in a traditional way of thinking, and are not being creative in the way that art is experienced, which is definitely ironic to me. There is so much potential for museums to become much more dynamic and inviting to more types of people by facilitating ways for people to use other senses to experience the art. 

Connection to a Real-World Example:

• As I was reading Carmen Papalia explain how his friends describe the settings they are in and the people they see, it reminded me of the book Haben, by Haben Girma- a deaf-blind woman who tells her life story and experiences, including her experience at Harvard Law School. There is one story about her being at a cocktail party at Harvard Law where she has someone with her to help her communicate with people and network. Something that she emphasizes is the fact that she asked for visual details about people around her, that give her more context about the people. This is something that I feel like a lot of times sighted people forget about- that there is so much visual information we take in and process that is so important and relevant, but we often don’t realize its importance. Another thing I was reminded of while reading  the part about the experiences that Carmen Papalia leads for sighted people to understand more about BLV experiences, was a museum/ experience I went to once that aims to mimic the experience of being deaf/ hard of hearing. The whole experience is led by a d/Deaf person who walks you through a few different rooms and experiences that simulate what it is like to be deaf. I think that as an educational experience it is valuable for people to get familiar with disability in this way and I think it’s a great experience. 

Burning Question:

• A question I have after reading this article is how museums might balance maintaining the original form of an art piece, while also adapting it and making it something that can be experienced in a wider variety of ways. I also wonder about artists themselves in relation to this, and the pushback they might have about adapting their work, which could definitely complicate things. 

 

other random notes/ quotes I highlighted/ am curious about… 

“Hadn’t yet claimed agency and established a system for my own access” 

“Started to use a white can – a symbol that I felt good and bad about”

“It institutionalized me”

• “Took me years to learn how to close my eyes”

• As someone who doesn’t think in the way artists are supposed to, I like to read the a11y descriptions of art- I want to know what it is and dont want to interpret it. But what about a BLV person that wants the opposite – there might be AD but its not the experience they want