To celebrate their 30th anniversary, audio specialists Eardrum have commissioned 30 artists, thinkers, and entertainers to release a new piece of audio each day of September. The result is Earfest 2020: Australia’s first audio festival.
“[W]e guarantee you the best seat in the theatre of your mind.”
With participants including comedians, musicians, poets and actors, the lineup promises a treat for sound-lovers everywhere. ARIA winning singer/songwriter Ruel, Cold Chisel guitarist Ian Moss, and satirist John Safran are just the beginning. You can find the full list of performers here.
“Covid-19 has devastated the art’s sector. This Festival allows us to celebrate the power of audio but more importantly support those with the skills to harness it at the time they need it most.”
Ralph van Dijk, Eardrum founder
To participate, you just need to register your name and email address on the festival website. Each day of September, they will release a new piece of audio and email you the link.
Admission is free, but they invite donations to The Shepherd Centre, raising money for hearing impaired children.
Many performances and events have been cancelled recently as a result of the ongoing pandemic. Some organisers, however, decide to adapt and shift their content online. This can result in innovative new forms of sharing and collaborating with others, and has the potential to expose fresh audiences to content that is otherwise inaccessible for reasons such as geography, finances, or disability.
“Streaming Fri 31 July – Sun 2 August, VCR Fest is three days of digital events coming from our home, to yours.”
The Melbourne Fringe‘s VCR Fest is an example of one such event, offering 13 diverse shows and workshops that can be accessed from home. There is even a “digital foyer” where viewers can discuss things with others, just like a live performance.
“For accessibility reasons we understand you may need to watch the event outside of the specified time or require longer viewing. While it is impossible to recreate the entire digital live experience (including interacting with other audience members in our digital foyer), we are pleased to be able to offer a replay of the majority of our digital content. If you require longer or flexible event access or would like to know more, please email info@melbournefringe.com.au or call (03) 9660 9600. Please note that we are unable to offer this for all events, and access will not be immediate.”
Feedback is invited, if you have any thoughts or requests regarding accessibility:
“As we navigate this digital world, we welcome your feedback and ideas on how we can make our digital events as accessible as possible. Get in touch with our Access and Inclusion Coordinator, Carly Findlay, on carly@melbournefringe.com.au or call the office on (03) 9660 9600. You can also reach us through the National Relay Service, just give them our number.”
In response to COVID-19 the organisation also aims to develop “a bespoke digital platform to host digital art on our website.” We look forward to seeing more exciting developments!
This month, the acclaimed Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company are presenting Djinda Kaatijin (to understand stars), a collection of Dreaming stories from various countries around the world.
Yirra Yaakin (Yir-raarh Yaarh-kin] which means “Stand Tall” in Noongar language, is one of Australia’s leading Aboriginal performing arts organisations producing award-winning, world-class theatre that is exciting, entertaining, educational, authentic and culturally appropriate.
Through a mix of traditional Noongar dreaming stories and contemporary Indigenous storytelling, Djinda Kaatijin explores the importance of the stars and how they are culturally important to us all.
Join Weitj (Emu), Dwert (Dingo) and Wardong (Crow) as they take us on a journey through the milky way to learn about the Seven Sisters (Pleiades) while interweaving star stories from around Australia and the world, including stories from India, Spain and Scotland as well as Noongar Boodjar. After all, it’s all our stars. It’s all our dreaming.
For Audio Description at the event, you will need to download the Sennheiser MobileConnect app (available for iOS and Android) and connect to the DADAA Wifi Mobileconnect WiFi network (available at the show) with your own mobile device. You will need to bring your own earphones.
For more information, please contact Jacqueline Homer:
Jacqueline Homer Head of Production DADAA Email: jacqueline@dadaa.org.au Mobile: 0400111018 Phone: 9430 6616 Address: 92 Adelaide Street Fremantle WA 6160 www.dadaa.org.au
Good news for comedy fans: the second season of ABC’s morning show parody Get Krack!n debuts tonight and will be audio described. The series stars Australian comedians Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, who have recorded their own AD tracks as shown in this video posted on their Facebook page today.
According to their Facebook post, Vision Australia will be making audio description available for the entire season of Get Krack!n on Vision Australia Radio at 9:30pm in Melbourne, Victoria and Perth and 10:30pm in Adelaide. A podcast will also be available the day after each episode has aired at https://radio.visionaustralia.org/
The provision of AD for this popular comedy is a promising development and will hopefully lead to more shows being audio described in future, on the ABC and elsewhere.
A 2017 survey undertaken by Comcast and the American Foundation for the Blind has found that vision impaired people are watching almost as much television as sighted viewers.
Released earlier this year, the press release outlines some important findings, such as:
96% of visually impaired adults watch television on a regular basis.
81% watch more than an hour per day and 55% watch four or more hours per day.
Importantly, this is happening despite ongoing difficulties with access:
65% of those surveyed encountered problems with looking up what’s on TV.
53% experienced difficulty in following along with key visual elements.
Less than half are aware of assistive technologies like video description and talking TV guides.
The provision of more readily available assistive technologies, including audio description, would therefore benefit a large percentage of the vision impaired community.