“Imaginary Cinema” -a panel discussion and artists presentations.
Sunday, February the 15th. 15.00-18.00, Witte De With Straat 63, Rotterdam (Formerly the Fotomuseum)
A Round-table discussion about the politics of representation with Deirdre M. Donoghue, Edward Clydesdale-Thomson, Ruth Legg and Sjoerd Westbroek.
An afternoon of discursive pleasures: Edward Clydesdale-Thomson invited four artists for a round -table discussion on the politics of representation. A collection of edited audio described film scenes will be screened.
Audio description for the cinema is a way to allow a blind or visually impaired public to follow, and hopefully enjoy, the experience of going to the cinema. Unlike the more common audio description found on DVD’s and increasingly on television broadcasting, audio description for the cinema encourages accessibility in a public arena rather than the home. Audio description lays down an additional soundtrack over the original film, which uses verbal description as a substitute to the visual image. The method in which each film is described varies greatly depending on the film in question. Within the discussion audio description will be covered both in this existing form and explored in its inherent potentials.
Three artists have been asked to give a statement in the form of a presentation of their work. A show-reel of edited sections of audio described film will then be screened. After which the discussion will be opened up to the public, as the panel discuss their differing attitudes and focus on an attempt to formulate a statement verbalising the position and potential of audio description within the politics of representation.
The artists on the panel are: Sjoerd Westbroek, whose practice focuses on the language of drawing, in an elastic manor he examines the mediums great paradox; that the moment something is depicted, that thing disappears behind the opaque surface of the drawing. Ruth Legg, whose multifaceted practice is an exploration of the potential that lies in exhaustion, her works with lucid irony both defy and defend the banality of their material. Deirdre Donoghue, whose films explore the nature of memory, as an act that unfolds within social encounter, illustrating its ambiguity and instability, simultaneously being created and recalled.
Due to the natural size constraints of a round table places are limited. To book a seat or for more information please write to edward@edwardthomson.net.
More info: http://www.rair.nl
Deirdre M. Donoghue 
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