The Art of Captioning: Introduction to Caption-writing and Caption Consultation
Wednesday 29 June, 12.30–2pm (Online)

You are invited to join us for an online workshop, the second event in a series from The Art of Captioning research group.

To register for this free event on Eventbrite, please click here.

Join us for a workshop that explores different aspects and specificities for approaching caption writing and consultation with practical exercises that target particular skills in order to begin interpreting and consulting on captions. The workshop will be led by Care-fuffle Working Group member Anita Wolska-Kaslow, with support from artist and activist Nina Thomas. 

This workshop will introduce ways to start thinking about implementing captions in moving image work, from early preparations for approaching caption-writing to exercises concerning interpreting and describing sound work. It is a practical and interactive workshop where participants will have an opportunity to engage in creative tasks and experiment with translating sound into captions to encourage them to start forming their own methods for caption-writing, all in a welcoming and supportive atmosphere. 

We hope that this workshop will offer insights into the process of caption-writing for anyone interested in implementing access measures in their work. And facilitate a space where collectively we can unravel and inspire ways to begin thinking of captions as another creative tool to be used in moving image work that sparks innovation, enhances access and stands for collective joy, care and solidarity. 

This event is a part of a series across 2022 supported by the British Art Network and is free to attend.

Introduction to Caption-writing and Caption Consultation is a closed session hosted on zoom and will not be recorded or livestreamed.  

Places are limited to 12 and must be booked in advance. If the workshop is fully booked a waiting list will be available, which you can sign up to via Eventbrite. We will be in touch with you by email should a place become available. If you can no longer attend the event, please contact us to cancel your booking to free up your ticket to another participant. 

Access Information

This event will be live-captioned and BSL interpreted. 

The event will be 90 minutes long with a 10-minute comfort break halfway through. 

If you have any questions or further access requirements, please email Hannah on hannah.wallis@wysingartscentre.org. 

About The Art of Captioning

The Art of Captioning is a research group, supported by British Art Network, that explores what creative captioning can bring to art while advancing vital work around access, equality and inclusivity in the sector.

In the current landscape of increased awareness and innovative activity, there is both huge opportunity and great need for collaborative research. The Art of Captioning hopes to generate new ideas and approaches, collectively — ideas with tangible, practical implications that will positively affect the way that the production and display of art is considered and resourced.

The Art of Captioning brings together artists, curators, researchers, activists and access workers to address the state of captioning and access awareness in British Art. Questions under consideration include: 

- How do we build on the activist histories of experimental moving image practices to galvanise discussions about the politics of access to art? 

- How can we develop new methodologies for retroactively making moving image and sound art works more accessible through captioning and audio description?

- What can we learn from the artists and access workers developing novel approaches to the translation of sound and image?

- What have the past two years of programming taught curators and organisations about access and accountability?

- How can we work together to embed caption-consciousness in commissioning, event-programming, and exhibition-making in British art?

The Art of Captioning is co-led by Hannah Wallis (Artist and Curator; Assistant Curator, Wysing Arts Centre) and Sarah Hayden (Associate Professor in Literature and Culture, University of Southampton, AHRC Innovation Fellow: Voices in the Gallery).

For more information about The Art of Captioning and how to join its membership, please visit our website page here.

Biographies 

Care-fuffle (b. 2021) is a disabled-led experimental film and art working group built on the belief of access as a collective joy and a gesture of care and solidarity. Through process-based research, experimentation and public programmes, we take and make space for disabled genius and creativity, encouraging its growth within cultural production. With our work we wish for disabled wisdom to be recognised and cherished. To be an inspiration for working towards a liberatory future and a new cultural ecosystem defined by equity and inclusion, care and socio-cultural responsibility.

Nina Thomas is a visual artist and advocate for captioning and improved access to the arts, heritage and film for deaf and hard of hearing people. In her art practice, she often foregrounds stories and histories which might be overlooked or underexplored. Much of her recent work has focused on her experience of becoming deaf and subsequently seeking to understand other deaf experiences and deaf history. She has exhibited at venues such as The Crypt Gallery (NW1), LUX (online) and OVADA (Oxford). She is a founding member of The Film Bunch, where she curated the online screening ‘Deaf Experience’, and she was commissioned by Pan Macmillan to create

an animation for the poet Raymond Antrobus. She has worked on access and advisory projects at the V&A, The Wallace Collection, NDACA, British Ceramics Biennial, The British Museum, Shape Arts and D4D. She is also a trustee at Stagetext.