This creates barriers for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, as well as those who are sensitive to sensory overload.

As part of Sensory Shift 2023, we joined guest artist Andy Slater on Zoom and he walked us through how he thinks about sound and the ways that we describe sound.

In this workshop, we learned how to expand our ability to describe sound, using both objective (informed by facts and practical) and subjective (informed by your own point of view) approaches.

We talked about vocabulary commonly used to describe sound and invited participants to share their own unique terms or words they use.

You missed it, you check out a clip from the workshop below!

Access Note: This workshop was sound heavy and involved listening and analyzing sound files, as well as writing and reading descriptions of sound.

Sensory Shift is the first phase of Creative Connector’s 2023 digital programs series. This 3-month virtual program includes a disability arts residency with guest artists, a mentorship program and public workshops and meetups that explore the theme of sensory experience in the digital realm.

This program is made possible by Canada Council for the Arts Digital Now and Sector and Innovation program.

About Andy

Andy Slater is a blind Chicago-based media artist, writer, performer, and Disability advocate/loudmouth. Andy’s work focuses on advocacy for accessible art and technology, Alt-Text for sound and image, the phonology of the blind body, spatial audio for extended reality, and sound design for film, dance, and digital scent design. Most recent, Andy was acknowledged by the New York Times in their article, “28 Ways To Learn About Disability Culture.” His research on Crypto Acoustic Auditory Non-Hallucination was published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern volume 61.