with Fayen D’Evie, 2019
single channel video, 13:14min ———-
Inverting audio description for the blind, ‘Shape of an Echo’ presents a re-description through gestural poetics of a sound collage ‘Hauntings’ by Andy Slater, the founder of the Society for Visually Impaired Sound Artists. The gestural poetics was choreographed/performed by Deaf dancer Anna Seymour. The video and the sound work were both made in old gaols whose star-like architectures were designed to control deviant citizens, through surveillance, sensory segregation, and enforcement of silence. By bringing blindness and Deafness into creative conversation about sensory translation, ‘Shape of an Echo’ is part of an accelerating movement, where artists with disability are claiming agency in reimagining access, and proposing new forms of collaboration and art making. ‘Shape of an Echo’ demonstrates that disability justice can catalyse creative innovation in how we use language, and how we can invite artists and audiences with diverse embodiments into shared conversation about issues of mutual concern.
Shot on location at Old Bendigo Gaol.
Artists:
Fayen d’Evie, Anna Seymour, Pippa Samaya, Andy Slater
Auslan Interpreter: Ilana Gelbart
Deaf Consultant: Jaycob Campbell
Images and Video by Pippa Samaya
