Aesthetic Audio Described Multi-Sensory Tours & Experiences
for Visually Impaired People
or
The Ongoing Development of
Emilie’s Solid, Space, Sound
What is Solid, Space & Sound?
What are audio-described and sensory tours/experiences?
What makes Emilie’s work distinctive in this area?
In recent years, Art Galleries, Theatres, Cinemas, and Cultural Institutions, in general, have realised that the dominance of visual culture excludes blind and visually impaired people. Therefore there has been a move towards exploring ways to make visual content accessible to visually impaired and blind people. Primarily the response employed by most institutions has been ‘audio-description,’ a spoken or written verbal description or translation of the work, in real-time or pre-recorded, to mediate the work to the visually impaired visitor.
Which is very nice …and better than nothing.. but from her experience as a visually impaired person of these kinds of access and inclusion Emilie found herself asking:
“where is the Art? Where is the Aesthetic? Where is the sensory imagination? If this is ‘it’ then what’s the difference between going to a shop or going to a Gallery/ And what is the internal power dynamic of a cultural experience being mediated or translated to a disabled person by a non-disabled person?
So, Emilie, as an artist, and with a visual impairment, found herself developing a different approach.
Emilie uses an innovative approach to the creation of her audis described tours and experiences for galleries and cultural institutions.
First and foremost her work is informed by her passion for art, its ability to enrich and bring healing to all of our lives and to make that art as broadly accessible as possible.
As an artist, working across genres and media, she is very aware of the role language can play in the evocation of an artistic experience in audio description. And so, Emilie brings a musician’s ear and sensitivity to sound and pacing to her creation of audio description. Additionally, as a writer and lyricist, she brings her broad love of languages, not just English, and discerning access to a wealth of metaphor and references.
Finally, as a person with a disability, a visual impairment, Emilie led the field in Ireland with identifying the need to mediate an artistic work in not just words alone. She says:
It all started when the RHA Gallery invited me to develop audio described tours of their Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings in 2019
For 2 years prior to that, I had facilitated 2 series of exploratory workshops for visually impaired and blind people, the first series supported by Dublin City Council. And the second series supported by CREATE. Please see below video: Surpreyes!
What appealed to me particularly about the invitation from the RHA was that they identified that as an artist with a disability, I would be bringing a particular strength and insight into accessibility. They saw difference as a value. This is so true. And we need more of it across the Arts. Because visually, I don’t necessarily get reliable or “factually correct” information, sound, touch, a sense of atmosphere communicate to me strongly. And, forms a major part of how I work and what I say in that work.
Straight away, as a singer, dancer, artists, writer, actor … I knew words alone could not convey the artistic experience. Art of any kind is a multi-sensory experience. Why should it just be reduced to words alone for disabled people? So right from the first tour, I employed a multidisciplinary, multi sensory approach. For Brin Eno’s 77 Million Paintings, I made a tactile map of the exhibition space so that visitors could get a sense of the space before they entered the room. I also made a tactile map of a sample of the “paintings” themselves and I got cuts of a silver birch tree so visitors could touch a living breathing part of the exhibition.
And this became the protocol for how I’ve created every tour since.
I am taking inspiration from my own experience of art. I come to know art in many ways….. so much of it is feeling .. and after all, if the painter could have said what she wanted to say in words, well she wouldn’t have painted it, would she? Even myself, the paintings I’ve made, I couldn’t have “said,” instead.
So we need more than words, and more than just the tactile, to give disabled people an experience ef art - well I think so anyway!”
This led to my creation of audio and sensory tours at the RHA of the work by : Brian Eno: 77 Million Paintings, Eamonn Doyle, Niamh O’Malley: Handle, Michael Robinson, and Neill Carroll.
And please continue reading below how Solid, Space and Sound has developed through work with the Nataional Gallery, the Pallas Projects, and the Ark.
Scroll down to see who Emilie has worked with and how this work has developed
Sensory Experience and Audio Description for Cosmic Wetness, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 24 August – 01 October 2023
“Karen’s work is so light and so poetic, this influenced the creation of this audio description which is like a spoken word piece. “
Listen to the audio description by clicking on Karen’s website here.
This has been a very special project. It came about because Karen Donnellan attended an Solid Space Sound experience I created for Chronic Collective last year and she so enjoyed it that when her work earned her an exhibition with the RHA, she approached me to work with her on making her exhibition as broadly accessible as possible.
Karen's work is very exciting and contemporary. She's a multi-disciplinary artist working with glass, crystals, found objects, and much , much more on ideas around "that which cannot be physically held." (Interesting for us VI people!) And also "Pleasure Activism, The Politics of Feeling Good." Read more about her here
Karen greeted every suggestion I made with delight - and "let's do it!!!" And the RHA responded with support and willingness - so this is a good news, disability led access story!
Come along on Sept 27 at 1pm, Karen and I will bring you through an experience of her work with a blend of sound art, audio-description, braille and tactile pieces all to make the exhibition come to life beyond the visual.
Commission: Solid, Space & Sound for the Ark for children in 2023.
Solid, Space and Sound has been inspired by my experience of
1. having a visual impairment myself
2. being an artist
1. The absence of immediate visual factual knowledge of our surroundings due to visual impairment/blindness can make new places daunting and seem unfriendly. New places take more time and energy. Time, to touch, to sense, to sound and to feel into new spaces and learn them on our own terms is valuable. This knowledge led me to design an interactive, multisensory, participatory, musical, rhythmic and audio-described, and fun!, experience of a new space in a way that facilitates a visually impaired person to learn a new space on their own terms using their body and senses: Solid, Space and Sound.
It is intended then, that this introduction experience helps develop confidence and personal agency, that the visually impaired child feels knowledgeable, empowered and welcomed to come back to that space again themselves, independently. They've had a chance to "know the space" in terms that make sense to them.
2. My second motivation for creating Solid, Space and Sound in cultural institutions, like the Ark, comes from being an artist myself. Art in all forms, visual, musical, literary or dance is the major part of my life. Yet when I attend events, either as an artist or audience, I so rarely encounter visually impaired or disabled adults or children, sadly. And so I wish for my work to help open that door by literally singing, playing, drumming children/adults through the door.
I feel especially strongly about accessibility and inclusion in the Arts for disabled children ..... If a child develops a relationship with the Arts - in the spaces where Art happens - chances are this will continue into adulthood, with all the richness and connection it brings.
Audio-Described and Sensory Tour of Lavinia Fontana, National Gallery, Ireland
Braille & Some of Emilie’s drawings which will be made into tactile pieces for multi sensory tour of trailblazer, Lavinia Fontana, @nationalgalleryofireland Monday July 11:30 for visually impaired visitors!
Drawings done ✅
Music selected & ready, ✅
Audio descriptions finished ✳️
Tactile pieces & materials organised in the Gallery ✅
Braille outline of the exhib & selected works received from @ncbi_sightloss ✅
Lots of fun for me artistically working across so many disciplines to create multi sensory experiences for VI visitors. The idea is that it all comes together to spark an vivid imagination of Fontana’s work!
Also delighted that this event kicks off #DisabilityPrideMonth with a program of events with @disabilitypowerireland 🌈🏳️🌈
Drawing Day at the National Gallery for Visually Impaired Visitors, 2023
Delighted to be invited by the NGI to make Drawing Day, such a sight dominant visual art, accessible and interesting to visually impaired people. I take drawing and I raise you with Braille! For the first time at the Gallery! Together with Roisin Dermody, we created a braille mapping of the paintings of this room, And I also have tactile drawings of some of the work, lots of audio description, a variety of materials that occur in the paintings, including a chainmail helmet, smells and a variety of soundscapes, all to bring this work to imaginative and beyond the visual sensory life!
Live Audio Description of Unearth with Undercurrent 2022
In 2022 I collaborated with Undercurrent on an accessible performance of Unearth. Unearth includes disabled performers and has accessibility at core for both performers and audience.
This is my audio description for Unearth, performed live in 2022 at the Dock Arts Centre show.
Emilie training NGI tour guides on Solid Space and sound
Solid, Space & Sound Audio Described and Sensory Tours at the National Gallery 2021 - Present
In 2021 during the pandemic, Emilie was approached by the NGI to create an accessible experience for blind and visually impaired visitors for the Irish Architecture Foundation Open House Dublin festival. For this, Emilie came up with Solid, Space & Sound, a tour that has proven popular year on year. In it visitors are guided through an audio-described and tactile experience of the National Gallery of Ireland through a mixture of materials, texture, space and sound! Visitors are led around the Gallery’s outdoor and indoor spaces with the invitation to build a unique experience of the Gallery through non-visual experience of Solid, Space and Sound! This experience has proven popular also with sighted people who wear a blindfold in order to experience the Gallery in non-visual way.
The Chronic Collective Festival
Solid, Space and Sound workshop by Emilie Conway - August 8th 5-7pm
A multi-sensory experience using sound, touch, and a sense of atmosphere to communicate artistic ideas which will open engagement from a more diverse audience to your practice.
https://www.emilieconway.ie/audio-described-sensory-tours
Emilie Conway Performance at Chronic Collective
August 18, 6pm
All participants and audience regardless of accessibility requirements are asked to fill out this form for Chronic Collective to best cater to needs of the group. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSczd-2xaECTokh_DpWa0jt0buNceqgJ2_GcTd668sCsFj-iYw/viewform
For more information visit : http://pallasprojects.org/project/chronic-collective
The National Neighbourhood: DCCCC
Cnnecting artists, groups and villages with libraries, museums and creative places to deepen their understanding of each other and themselves.
The National Neighbourhood is a Dublin City Council cultural programme run by Dublin City Council Culture Company. It spans the Dublin City Council region, and brings together Dublin City Council’s City Library & Archive, the area offices, the City Arts Office and Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, in partnership with National Cultural Institutions (The Abbey Theatre, The National Museum of Ireland, The National Library of Ireland, The National Gallery of Ireland, The National Concert Hall, The Chester Beatty Library, The National Archives and The Irish Museum of Modern Art).
I was delighted to be a part of this programme. DCCCC invites participation on an ongoing basis. Find out more at dublincitycouncilculturecompany.ie