Stephanie Farmer: Midterm Portfolio – #4 Audio Description

Project Description:

The theme of this work aligns with all of my other projects as I intended to use the imperfections of access tools as a point of creative and emotional discovery. Lines like [the sound of trying to fit in] reflect the desire of disabled people to use all these access tools to fit in with society. But what I want to emphasize is that our pathway to participating in society can be a piece of art or something that causes critical thinking rather than just being a chore or a legally required task.

To create this video I traveled to my safe space that inspired the original tactile graphic I made, the pier. Then I recorded the ways the sun glimmers in the sun in front of the waves as they glimmered in the same way. I reached the graphic towards the water as a compare and contrast kind of thing. Then I went back to the pier another day and recorded an 8-minute-long voice memo about the pier and the tactile graphic and trying to fit in. Then I cut the two together and captioned everything.

Documentation:

Transcript:

Stephanie: this is a collection of videos, short clips strung together there’s text glowing at the bottom of the screen. Here’s the ground, cold chips of ice. [the sound of time freezing over and then melting away] trying to find something to hold onto that time. It’s a cardboard piece of ice. a plastic memory, frozen but not cold it doesn’t quite fit though. [the sound of time passing]. I’m at the pier the waves sound like a home that I’ve dreamed of but can’t go to. I reach out my hand to the waves with my frozen piece of time. [the sound of wishing it fit] [the sound of trying to make it fit] [the sound of dreaming of belonging] [the sound of cars in the distance] [life and time in the distance] my cardboard wave layered in glue and humanity’s toxic chemicals sparkles in the sun just like the waves. if you look at it from the right angle you can pretend it blends in. [the sound of pretending it blends in] [the sound of blending in] [the sound of blending] [the sound of disappearing] [the sound of the unnatural rubbing up against the natural] I found a safe space I just can’t quite get to it. I can’t quite hold it in my hands. I hold in my hands plastic cardboard I can’t quite hold the peace in my hands. [the sound of reaching for peace] The sun reflects off of the glue. the sun reflects off of the plastic. the plastic can’t soak in the sun. the waves soak in the sun I soak in the sun. but [the sound of plastic reflecting the sun] [the sound of plastic refusing the sun] trying to fit in oh [the sound of trying] [the sound of trying] [the sound of trying the sound of trying] the water is more green and gray than blue now there is no puzzle piece its just water. I can’t quite reach it I can’t quite hold onto it. [ the sound of not being able to hold on] [the sound of letting go]

Slide 3: The waves of the Hudson River at sunset. In the foreground, the water is a deep blue and turns a warm yellow with distance. 

Slide 4: I hold the tactile graphic in my hands in front of ice on the concrete ground. The graphic is an inch tall and two inches wide. It has a blue oil pastel base and layers of hot glue that crest over the top edge of the cardboard and catches the sun. 

Reflection questions: 

How is your theme particularly expressed through the modality of the week? 

My creative audio description expresses this theme as it is imperfect. The sound of the wind howling through the microphone occasionally interrupting the audio description serves to prove that the describer, me, was actually there. Creative audio description allows one to paint a complete picture of a scene including the emotions that in art are often only expressed visually.

Which elements of the work are beautifully expressed through the modality? Which elements are lost or inexpressible through the modality of the week?

The story and emotion of it are well expressed because of my ability to change the quality of my voice to emphasize frustration or sadness. In recording the audio description myself, I tonality emphasized the feelings the words produced. I think that the ambiance of the pier, the waves on their own, is interrupted by my description of the scenes. Without enough time to describe every scene change and action amongst all the poetic dialogue, there are some images that remain undescribed.

Who does this project exclude? Who would not be able to interact with this work? Who is this modality not accessible for?

As I said, this project doesn’t perfectly describe every visual element so I think the audio description can be improved for blind and low-vision audiences. The captions also don’t quite reflect the imperfections of the audio description as there are moments when the wind interrupts my voice. I also think that the message is not super direct so writing these explanations might help as a companion tool for neurodivergent friends!

Additional Modality: 

VIDEO DESCRIPTION: The video opens with a clip of the ground outside. Hexagonal concrete tiles are a little scattered with the last remnants of snow. The bold blue text sits at the bottom of the screen captioning the voiceover. The camera zooms in on the ice. Then my right hand enters the frame holding the touch objects. Which is mounds of solid hot glue with a blue tint. As I move the tactile graphic it glistens and sparkles in the sun. I move the graphic away and the on the ground glows in the same way. It slowly fades to a clip of the Hudson River sparkling in the heavy afternoon sun. Then it fades to a clip of me holding the tactile graphic in front of the waves. The blurry image and the setting sun make the touch object almost blend into the waves. I reach the graphic towards the water trying to align it with the sun. Then it cuts to an image of the water and the Jersey City skyline, with shining buildings in the distance. I again hold the plastic in front of the water lower this time so it is clearer that it doesn’t fit in. I keep moving it to catch the light. Then I just film the water closer to me and it’s greener than the glistening blue from the start of the video. Then the screen goes black with the text alone.

Written video description allows for a screen reader to read aloud the text that describes the video. I worked to create a more accurate concrete description that I can imagine working well on a plaque or informational documentation in installation formats. In the original video, I created very abstract image descriptions that had some pieces left out of them. I wanted to create a separate written description of the piece so that people could compare and contrast the two versions of descriptions while also adding a new layer of accessibility. As I have been exploring the imperfections of access tools, I enjoy trying to see where audio description is flawed. At the same time, purposely messing up the description is inaccessible. Comparing the two allows for more people to understand the pros and cons and inconsistencies of audio descriptions.