Watching
without
seeing
This section of our third issue presents three forms of audio-descriptions of juggling pieces. Listen to each project here.
Tale of THE fish
Christiane Hapt comes from an academic background in the visual arts and has been working as a circus artist with a focus on object manipulation since 2010.
After a bacterial disease left her almost blind for a year—and with no certainty about her vision in the future despite operations—she has dedicated her work to artistic audio description, attempting to make circus performances (more) accessible. Her goal is to create pieces for a mixed audience—regardless of visual ability.
The piece presented is a description of the backwards fishtail—a trick done with a stick—going from neutral, to poetic, to medical rap, to neutral + filling the void, written by Christiane Hapt, Bart Vereecke, and Sonja Apfler.
Photograph: Christiane Hapt by Barbara Mair
CHÃO
CHÃO is a research and creation project in ground juggling led by Uatumã Fattori. As one of its main objectives it proposes experiencing juggling from different perspectives: using the sound of objects, or blackouts (a dark stage) to create an environment where listening is the primary form of experimentation.
The images presented here are a selection of postcards created in collaboration with the Postgraduate Course in Audio Description for the Creative Industries, ISCAP, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, 2025, and the audio-descriptions are in their original language, Portuguese.
Photographs by Teresa Santos
Rollercoaster
Rollercoaster is a one-hour juggling show by Wes Peden. An audio-description was performed live during a performance at the Southbank Centre in London, which also included a touch tour ahead of the show. The touch tour allowed visually impaired people to interact with some of the props and listen to Wes juggle up close, and without music.
Here is an extract of the three ball routine.
This audio-description was created by Sophia Knox-Miller, produced by VocalEyes and commissioned by the Southbank Centre in London.
Photograph by Florence Schroeder