To ignite curiosity around the exhibition’s theme of semi-visibility, the Guggenheim partnered with the team at Social Audio Description Collective to bring multiple insights, perspectives, and open-ended questions to the verbal descriptions in Going Dark. Typically created for listeners who are blind or have low-vision, verbal descriptions provide access to visual content through close observation and offer an illuminating slow-looking experience for all.

Transcript
Nefertiti Matos Olivares: I was really touched by "Disremembered X"—the way the artist must have painstakingly put that together with the needles and knowing that it was based on speaking to mothers whose children were victims of gun violence. The description—not only did it grant me access to what was visually available, but it also made me feel that pain.

My name is Nefertiti Matos Olivares, and I use "she/her/hers" pronouns. I’m a blind, bilingual Latina living in New York City. I remember recording that description, and I think you can hear in my voice how affected I was.

Thomas Reid: So much information is conveyed visually whether we’re talking about print, on screen, on stage, or museums. And image descriptions are methods for making that information accessible to people who are blind or have low vision.

I’m Thomas Reid. "He/him/his" pronouns. I’m a brown-skinned Black man with a smooth-shaven bald head and a full, neat beard. 

Barbara J. Faison: I’m Barbara J. Faison. My pronouns are "she" and "her." I am a middle-aged pecan-brown-colored African American woman.

Nefertiti: We are a group of professionals in our own right who noticed major gaps and sort of deficits in how things are being described and what was being described.

Thomas: I think our philosophy is that we wanna reflect the world as it is—not a color-blind approach that sort of erases all of the beauty in our unique identities, right?

Barbara: That’s how the Social Audio Description Collective started. And now we have this wonderful team where we have writers, narrators, audio engineers and quality-control people, as well as project management.

Cheryl Green: I’m Cheryl Green—"she/her" pronouns. I’m a white Ashkenazi Jewish woman with invisible disabilities and chronic illness.

Social Audio Description Collective is blind centered in our work. Always the blind perspective is there.

Oliver Baker: I’m Oliver Baker. And my pronouns are "he/him," but I’m happy with "they" as well. I think I benefit from having been a reporter, having been a scientist. I’m practiced in the mission of describing from a neutral, as objective as possible point of view. Paradoxically, there’s something very subjective about the description, especially, of a piece of art.

Cheryl: If you focus too much on just writing exactly what you see, then you lose the perspective of what is the point of making this description. Now, I’m not here to tell you what to think, but it certainly makes me feel something to look at it. So, is there a way I can get a description in there that doesn’t tell you what I think you need to get from this, but gives you something that’s not just ocularcentric? That’s not all vision, vision, vision. Because then that wouldn’t be blind centered, at least I think.

Nefertiti: The difference is that the sighted person is using their eyes, and their brain computes. But guess what? The emotions follow too. So why shouldn’t we have access as blind people to that as well?

I was very excited to cultivate a deeper relationship with the Guggenheim staff, because I feel like we have similar goals and ideas of what makes for good access.

Access is power. It’s information. The fact that you have access to this information enriches your life. And the more we show up—as blind people, as low-vision people, the more we will be seen, the more we will be taken into account, the more access we will have. And if we can all enjoy it, then that’s all the better.

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