written by Ria Andriani, Vision Australia client, staff member, volunteer and visitor to Sydney's Vivid Festival.
In its sixth year, Vivid is now a major annual event for the residents of Sydney. Held between 22 May to 8 June 2015, one of the most stunning features was the lighting of the Opera House sails.
This year’s display was designed by Universal Everything, a London-based animation company. The light sequence lasts for fifteen minutes and comprises of thirty seconds segments based on single words such as ‘climb’, ‘twist’ and ‘wind’. However, given its visual nature, this artistic masterpiece is challenging for people who are blind or have low vision, like myself, to enjoy.
As part of their Accessibility Program, the Sydney Opera House partnered with Vision Australia to train two of their staff, Stephen McCauley and Susan Kibukamusoke, as Audio Describers. Through their precise descriptions I was able to more fully enjoy and experience the event.
Outside the Western Foyer, Stephen and Susan introduced the talk by showing the textured tiles which are used on the Opera House building. I was also able to explore a tactile model of the sails. This gave me a three-dimensional idea of the plains and texture of the lights display.
The function of an audio describer is to describe what they see. In this particular case, the sequence of lights as they formed, moved and transformed on the surfaces of the sails. It was a challenging task due to the abstract nature of the animation and the rapidity of the sequence. The segment ‘climb’, for example, consisted of a tower of cards which built up higher and higher. A hand reached to the top of the tower and brought down the clouds and the sky itself until it transformed to three stick figures which fell to the base of the sails. The rest of the description painted a vivid picture of rapid climbing and falling. As was the nature of the segment, I felt that a good deal was left out of the audio description. Nevertheless, the description had been very enlightening and was greatly valued by the people who came.
The audio description tour of Vivid’s Lighting of the Sails is an initiative of the Opera House’s Accessibility Program and is in its second year. It will be provided again in 2016.
For more information on audio described events please check out the Vision Australia website: www.visionaustralia.org/about-us/events.