This is a video by Christine Sun Kim called Closer Captions. Christine explores her frustration with subtitles, and how poor described audio can leave a lot to be desired for deaf people like her. We only get [music] instead of [mournful violin music that sounds like crying alone in an empty bar].
After her introduction, she creates a short film reconstructed from described sound, and this is where we begin to see the world through her eyes (or ears).
The subtitles, rather than being dry, plain, descriptions of sound effect, are poetic and impressionistic, often attempting to describe sounds that we don’t hear. In Christine’s described audio, we hear [sound of the sun entering the bedroom], [the sound of shampoo scent floating among the fog], We also experience other senses that can’t be experienced through the film, such as smells and touch.
The short film make you imagine how it feels to watch a film without being able to hear. How do you know which sounds makes noise and which don’t? How would we know if the “sound of skin waking up” can be heard? How loud is the “sound of socks peeling off” compared to the “sound of temperatures slowly dropping”?
Christine also creates entire scenes we can’t hear using described audio. In her apartment, she describes “whispered conversation,” “words throwing punches,” and “the sound of hurt feeling being scabbed over.” All we see is a silent shot of a door barely cracked open in the dark.
Her short film takes the convention of subtitles and turns it into an artistic device worthy of its own merit, and explores how much more it could be than an accessibility tool. She writes poetry, evokes sensation, and makes us aware of the kinds of things that can and can’t be noticed in a world without sound.
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