Access Lab & Library (ALL) approaches access as a temporary, collectively-held space, as an experimental field, and as a platform for generosity.
We are Fayen d’Evie, Lloyd Mst and Jon Tjhia. Our lab offers iterative prototyping of inter/sensory access innovations through performance, exhibition and publication collaborations. Our partners are artists, collectives and commissioning organisations.
Our library will share case studies and guides to artist-led access strategies — and, we hope, grow to offer a lending system for access equipment, starting with Naarm/Melbourne and regional Victoria.
We’re in pursuit of access beyond baseline compliance; access that aligns with individual and collective ethics and distinctive creative practices.
… more to come, soon …
We work from the unceded sovereign lands, waters and skies of Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Jaara Country, in the south-east corner of so-called Australia. BROADCAST
~~~~~“…derelict in uncharted space…”
Welcome to our audiodescribed radio broadcast season.
Commissioned by Chunky Move and Melbourne Fringe, Radical Access Commission 2023. An intrepid homage to a Star Trek fan club through intersensory movement and space-time translations.
Image description: In this dimly lit photo showing a glowing green caption screen in the foreground, Luke rests his head tenderly on Fayen's shoulder. Both their eyes are closed and a wisp of smoke escapes them as it might an extinguished cigarette
Image credit: Gianna Rizzo
Image description: Luke's eyes concentrate on his duck-like hand as a fierce looking Miranda calmly but firmly reaches for the back of Luke's head, as though to push him into the sheet of red celluloid draped in front of them
Image credit: Gianna Rizzo
Image description: Bathed in warm orange light, Rebecca tilts her head to one side, palms upward in offering to Fayen, who faces her. Both are moving their hands — signing perhaps — as the blurred light of the photo shows. In the background, space dust drifts on a TV screen as a group of people in casual clothes look on to the performance; one is holding something and appears to be audiodescribing the scene
Image credit: Gianna RizzoImage description: The stage is bathed in soft violet light as Miranda stands tall, fingers pricking the air above her, face hidden in shadow. A trail of diffused smoke swells away from her as though willed by her palms. Rebecca, sitting in the corner, watches on. Three spectators can be seen behind the smoke, sitting on a bench, where they may take in the whole scene: the dimmed screens, the zig-zagging black shape on the ground, the raised tracks of wood and plastic marking out the tactile stage, the shadowed wooden wheel in the centre of the floor
Image credit: Gianna RizzoImage description: Luke kneels over Miranda, whose limbs appear limp; he gently cradles her wrist in his hands, so that together, their fingers recall a dishevelled pigeon. There's a blurred caption screen in the foreground and the drape of the blood red plastic curtain behind them, obscuring a flattened whirlpool on the ground
Image credit: Gianna RizzoImage description: Action! Miranda holds her wrists back mid-kick as her blurred pink foot seems to advance toward Luke, who's looking away to the side. A projector beams lime green over an otherwise purple wash; TV screens in the background beam 'ON THE' in bold white capital letters; Fayen sits sternly watching Luke and Miranda, holding her cane across her knees calmly. Audience members can be seen in the shadows
Image credit: Gianna RizzoImage description: In a more subdued scene, perhaps, intense purple and green light emanates from screens and spotlights as Luke, Miranda and Fayen lean back-to-back on the wheel that sits in the centre of the picture. Their shadow is green, like a puddle of leaked coolant, and Fayen's cane is laid across the floor. On the screen above them, Georgina balances her cane between her ear and shoulder as she gestures toward projections of lush saturated plants, roses and leaves which bleed over her hair and draped dress too
Image credit: Gianna Rizzo
, AEDT
Episodes were streamed below at the following times:
Wednesday 25 October 2023, 7.30PM AEDT
Thursday 26 October 2023, 10.30AM AEDT
Friday 27 October 2023, 7.30PM AEDT
Saturday 28 October 2023, 10.30AM AEDT
Saturday 28 October 2023, 7.30PM AEDT (*special AV premiere)
You can catch up on the captioned broadcast of our final show below.
About the show
In 1974, an amateur Star Trek fan club in San Francisco launched Project Communicator, a non-profit initiative to bring the wonderment of Star Trek to blind audiences, through descriptive radio plays. For their pilot, they chose the episode ‘Is There In Truth No Beauty’, which guest starred a blind telepath character. Despite being endorsed by the Star Trek cast, and narrated by Trek actor James Doohan, Paramount perceived the project as piracy. The pilot was never released, and Project Communicator was abandoned.In this world premiere season, a stellar collaborative of dancers, artists, writers, musicians, and designers pays homage to the creative innovation and collective ethos of Project Communicator. We invite you to join us for an ambitious movement performance that experiments with possibilities for inter-sensorial translations, beyond the boundaries of perceptual norms, and the boundaries of space-time.
“O brave new world..."
Audiodescribers:
Jon Tjhia, Kalinda Vary, Khalid Warsame, Lorena Zapiain, Madeleine Flynn, Milly Cooper, Nilgün Güven, Rachel Edward, Rosemary Forde, Xinyuan (Caesar) Li, Zeno d’Evie and Zoe Scoglio
Concept by:Fayen d’Evie and Benjamin Hancock
Created by:Fayen d’Evie, Benjamin Hancock, Rebecca Bracewell, Luke D. King, Georgina Kleege, Nelly Kate, Andy Slater, Lloyd Mst, Jon Tjhia, Alex Craig, Anastasia La Fey, Aaron McPeake, Anna Seymour, Sheereen Perrin, George Thomas, Lorena Zapiain and Sheri Wells-Jensen, in association with Antony Hamilton, Vitae Veritas, Bryan Phillips, Madeleine Flynn and Charles Gushue
Acknowledgments:
Co-commissioned by Chunky Move and Melbourne Fringe and supported by Arts Access Victoria as part of the Radical Access program. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory funding, and by the City of Melbourne through its Arts and Creative Investment Partnerships Program. This project received Cash to Create through the Fringe Fund as part of Radical Access and Cash for Equity as part of the Ralph Mclean Microgrants program
Radio adaptation:
Jon Tjhia with additional engineering by Marco Cher-Gibard
Caption design and live implementation:
Lloyd Mst, George Thomas and Jake Bonin