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Poster design by AIM designer/researcher Roï Saade. Image description: Poster of the exhibit with dark blue lettering on a light green and textured background that resembles thick paper. On the top left corner appears the AIM lab’s logo. Under it “Audio Description in the Making” is written in capital letters and under it “online exhibition” appears in a rounded rectangle. At the very bottom left, a large letter A is traced-out in blue so the background appears in the middle of the letter. Next to this A, a long hyphen swooshes across the page to reach the letters I, M and L, A, B in the same style of lettering at the top-right of the poster. In the middle of the page appear the names of the curators, Thomas Reid and Cheryl Green. Under, the names of the artists: Salima Punjani and Diego Bravo; Prakash Krishnan and Sabrina Ward; Pipier Curtis and Nicholas Goberdhan; Jessie Stainton and Caitlin Chan; Simone Lucas; Arseli Dokumaci; Raphaëlle Bessette-Viens. At the bottom the funders logos appear in black: Canada research Chairs and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
In September and October 2021, the AIM-Lab hosted a three part online workshop on Audio Description (AD) led by Cheryl Green and Thomas Reid. Beginning from a place that centers the experiences of those who are blind and recognizes the art in audio description, the workshop invited participants to reflect critically both on visual information and to view it as more than mere access. The resulting series of works engage with AD in innovative and creative ways, exploring sound, text, movement, and their mixtures. From an audio-logo to a binder that comes to life to a sci-fi meditation to a lusty afternoon brewing mead to a video game adventure to artistic critiques of colonialism to glittering light that turn windowpanes into jellyfish, the collection of pieces in this online exhibit engages with the creative potentials of access.



How is it possible that a painting can sit so still, yet demonstrate so much noise and movement? Artists Nicholas Goberdhan and Piper Curtis weave together linguistic and sonic poetry to transport listeners into the oil-paint world of Mark Tansey’s Forward Retreat. Goberdhan’s cadence and tone set the pace while Curtis’ lush soundscape fully engulfs listeners within the story of the piece as it unfolds.
Piper Curtis 2020
Montreal, Quebec