Translation as creation – what I’ve learnt from image descriptions

In Facilitating Access, we look at embracing diversity and minimising barriers. 

Translation between formats is critical to supporting students and their preferred and necessary learning styles. 

One such translation is the task of creating an image description: from the visual into text. 

We are given two images and these recommendations for description writing:

Individually, this task is an empowering act of creation.  

Words as paint we brush to convey the textures of the image as we see and understand it.  

In the Disability Visibility Podcast, Amanda Cachia talks about accessibility and what is means as a curator and to the artists she works with.  She found that image descriptions had resonated with her fellow artists beyond their practical necessity. 

“…I invited all the artists in that exhibition to develop their own image descriptions…And some of them said to me, “Wow, that was just like poetry for me. That was so much fun. And it gave me more insight into my art and my practice and thinking about my audience.” [15:35 – 21:53] 

Disability Visibility Project – Curating Access: Global Exhibitions and Creative Accommodation  

Collectively, these translations highlight the negative spaces in our thinking. What values do we transmit when transforming knowledge, and what do we unintentionally omit? 

Playing in the ball pit of responses, you can get a true sense of the diversity of experience and perspectives. 

Below is a visual map I created to share this flurry of thoughts and connections. The online software, Miro allows ideas and images move around the digital space, picking up connections and allowing for experimentation in presentation. 

Accessibility can feel like a part of a compliance checklist when it’s divorced from its origins of disability justice and challenging traditional hierarchies of knowledge. In the words of Khairani Barokka: 

‘…translation is not a direct copy of the original and is in fact in many ways the creation of an entirely new artwork, the possibilities seem endless.’  

Open-Wide Translation: Centering Intersectional Feminist, Accessible Translating Across Platforms - Khairani Barokka (VIDA: Women in Literary Arts) 

We are all responsible in working towards a more accessible future and setting an example for a new generation of students and artistic practices. 

To find out more about the practicalities of access, check out the Introduction: translating between formats article. 

We also encourage you to try writing an image description yourself, or just look around at other people’s responses in the Padlet link below

There are two images you can respond to; however, we recommend writing your own version of an image description before exploring other people’s interpretations. 

Image Description activity (padlet.org)

…

Facilitating Access is an online learning series for CSM staff. If you would like to arrange a live session relating to this content, please contact Annabel Crowley: a.crowley@csm.arts.ac.uk