The practice of “Auteur Description» originates from the French, and is a technique originally created with artistic films in mind. The aim of this technique is to incorporate the maker’s creative vision into AD. I find this approach very relevant and well suited to my own views on the use of AD for dance, thus I decided to transport this method from the screen to live performance.
I have discovered that close collaboration between the choreographer of the piece and the audio describer (myself), allows more freedom to explore the content of the performance within the AD itself. Working in this way yields space to wonder about the meanings and messages transmitted through the visual aesthetics of contemporary dance. By using Audio Description based on Author Description in dance performances, I play with the magic of words and guide the audience composed by users of blindness though the story world created by the performer.
My aim within this practice is to remain loyal to the maker’s intention and the performance itself, while simultaneously further developing my research and bringing my own artistry to the process of creating the AD.
The piece «4/2/3» choreographed and performed by Amit Palgi is the first Audio Description I created based on this practice. The text of the AD was written in collaboration with Amit and the artist Rune Leysen.
Hereby you can press on the following photo for a short video of this practice.
There are different causes of blindness and low vision and all of them are manifested in different ways. Most users of blindness are not completely blind and therefore, can experience certain visual inputs depending on their vision problem.
To offer a wider understanding on this topic Amit, Rune and I, created an interactive video of the piece 4/2/3 with Audio Description in which you, as an audience member, can choose how you want to perceive the piece. For that, we included the most common types of eye problems: cataract, retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.
We are currently searching for places to share life this piece with its Audio Description to blind users. They are the why we do it, and we need their experience and opinion to continue helping each other and make more art accessible to a larger audience.
