Research project

Blue Description Project

Project overview

The Blue Description Project (BDP) is an audio description and captioning project, produced by artists and research assistant professors Liza Sylvestre and Christopher Robert Jones (Crip*) in collaboration with Sarah Hayden (Voices in the Gallery). Invested in a cripistemological (a portmanteau of ‘crip’ and ‘epistemological’) creative-critical framework where Disabled/Crip epistemologies function methodologically rather than as mere subject matter, the Blue Description Project engages Derek Jarman's Blue (1993) via expanded and critical accessibility.

"If I have overlooked something you hold precious—write it in the margin.” (Derek Jarman, Chroma, 1994)

BDP takes up this invitation by creating a new, experimental iteration of Blue on the 30th anniversary of both its release and Jarman’s death. Our BDP iteration features creative captions and audio description sourced from numerous contributors. It attempts to convey, express, engage, articulate, replicate, translate, channel and transcend what Blue is/was/could be. Initial presentations are scheduled for Gene Siskel Film Centre, Chicago (February 15th), BFI, London (March 8th), MIT List Visual Arts Centre, Boston (March 14th) and Personal Space Gallery, California (April 7th), with further presentations to follow.

The Blue Description Project is made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with further support from the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities.

Staff

Lead researcher

Dr Sarah Hayden

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Voice
  • Experimental Poetics
  • Artists' Moving Image
Connect with Sarah

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs