This is the transcript of the audio description track for Dan Guthrie's work Empty Alcove. It was written by Soundscribe and Dan Guthrie to be a dialogue between an objective and a subjective audio describer to reflect the wide range of voices that have been involved in the ongoing conversations about the Blackboy Clock in Stroud.
The work is five minutes long and timecodes are displayed in the format mm:ss,msms, which is two-digit minutes, seconds, and milliseconds.
Installation view of Empty Alcove. Courtesy of Spike Island, Bristol. Photography by Rob Harris.
00:02,02 -> 00:16,54
Audio describer [pleasant, neutral]: A stationary shot of the top of a sandy stone building with a narrow gabled roof. An arched alcove, a recess in the wall, is in the centre of the frame and below this is a protruding ledge.
00:30,00 -> 00:39,08
Artist [mildly irritated]: Haven’t you forgotten a few things? What about that black clock face at the bottom of the frame, or the black bell hanging just to the right of the alcove?
01:00,00 -> 01:22,24
Audio describer [pleasant, neutral]: A stationary shot of the top of a sandy stone building. Wispy white clouds drift across the blue sky in the background. An arched alcove is in the centre of the frame. A black clock face is just below the alcove’s empty protruding ledge. A black bell is hanging to the right of the alcove.
01:30,00 -> 01:48,01
Artist [more irritated]: Uh, why are the clouds relevant? Surely you’ve got to acknowledge that something’s missing here? Why would there be a ledge with nothing on it, doesn’t it look like something’s been removed? Maybe a [adding emphasis] figure or statue of some kind that used to sit on the ledge?
02:00,00 -> 02:21,28
Audio describer: [signs of irritation cut through composure] A stationary shot of the top of a historical sandy stone building. Its arched alcove, a recess in the wall, is empty but for a suspended black bell on its right side. The top of an octagonal black clock face is just below the alcove’s empty ledge. The ledge is empty.
02:30,01 -> 02:44,13
Artist: Woah woah woah, why did you have to throw “historical” in there? That’s a pretty loaded word for a building which arguably only has historical value because of what’s on there right now… or not there while we’re looking at it here. And besides, it’s only valuable because back in the day someone decid-
02:48,50 -> 03:12,55
Audio describer [interrupting] An empty ledge is in the centre of the frame on the top half of a sandy stone building. The ledge is beneath an arched alcove, a recess in the wall. There’s a suspended black bell on the alcove’s right side and a black clock face below the alcove’s empty ledge contains gold roman numerals. The ledge is empty and dates back to the nineteenth century.
03:13,00 -> 03:39,13
Artist: [mocking] ‘The ledge is empty and dates back to the nineteenth century’ [relaxes into regular voice] …yeah that is true I guess. As we’re looking at it now, it is just a boring old building with an old clock that’s not got anything offensive stuck on the side of it for all to see. Just a shame that this isn’t what it looks like in the real world… at least for now. Keep describing that mundanity mate.
03:45,06 -> 04:20,53
Audio describer [trying to find the right words]: A stationary shot of the top of a sandy stone building with a narrow gabled roof. An arched alcove, a recess in the wall, is in the centre of the frame and below this is an empty protruding ledge. The thin horizontal ledge is around three feet wide and is a muted yellow in colour. Considering its age, it is in good condition. There is nothing on the ledge. A black clock face is just below the empty alcove’s protruding ledge and a black bell is hanging to the right of the alcove.
04:30,00 -> 04:36,18
Artist: It’s just an empty alcove, and the street’s all the better for it.
04:45,00 -> 04:50,02
Audio description written and voiced by Dan Guthrie and Elaine Lillian Joseph
SoundScribe is a global majority collective of audio describers and consultants specialising in access for performance work, arts institutions and moving image. They offer an embodied and creative approach that resists the pressure to create de-personalised audio descriptions, re-centering marginalised voices through consultation and collaborations with blind and visually impaired creatives.
Dan Guthrie is an artist who often works with words and the moving image to explore representations and mis-representations of Black Britishness. His new body of work, Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure, is commissioned and produced by Spike Island and Chisenhale Gallery.