Inventions in Sound

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

BBC Radio 4 - Inventions in Sound

The poet Raymond Antrobus explores the art of translating sound for the eye.

The poet Raymond Antrobus explores the art of translating sound for the eye, looking at the poetic possibilities of closed captions.

[Sound of sky splitting] 

[Sound of heart accelerating] 

[Sound of shadows behind a door] 

The poet Raymond Antrobus explores the art of translating sound for the eye, looking at the poetic possibilities of closed captions. 

What can these captions - designed to illuminate the sound world of a film or TV show - reveal about how we conceive of sound itself?

Raymond speaks to fellow D/deaf poets and artists to explore their experiences navigating the spaces between the words. Are closed captions just a simple act of transcription - [Doorbell rings] - or a more subjective act of translation? How might we reimagine them?

[Sound of something invented]

Featuring the sound artist Christine Sun Kim, poet Meg Day, filmmaker and founding member of FWD Doc Lindsey Dryden and the captioner Calum Davidson from Red Bee Media. With poetic captions inspired by the work of Christine Sun Kim.

This documentary has been produced in three forms - as a radio broadcast, as a transcript with annotations from Raymond and as a subtitled video.

Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

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