Search

The article focuses on the possibilities of using audio description as a teaching aid in teaching Russian on university degree programmes. The author proposes a set of exercises for practical learning of Russian using the animated series Masha and the Bear. The structure of the proposed exercises includes several stages of student activities (including observation, language exercises, text editing, recording of a ready-made audio description), which makes it possible to adapt them to different levels of language proficiency of the learners. The proposed exercises do not focus only on verbal description itself, but also force the student to engage in in-depth analysis and reflection that requires reading the scene in a broader context, e.g. using the cultural background that can be seen while watching the series. Audio description is an attractive teaching aid, a tool that allows the simultaneous use of authentic material, such as the animation Masha and the Bear, and new technologies, including: applications for recording ready-made audio descriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Film Quarterly / Kwartalnik Filmowy is the property of Kwartalnik Filmowy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Audio description (AD) is an additional soundtrack in a film containing concise, verbal information about what is happening on the screen. The language of the AD should be appropriate to the genre of the film lexically and stylistically. This means that the language of AD in film comedies should contain some verbal ‘signals’ of the comic as an aesthetic category. The author of the presented research has attempted to analyse lexical and stylistic means of conveying situational comic and character comic as the two main types of comic, apart from the verbal one expressed directly in the characters’ speech. The material for the research included the following Soviet film comedies: We are from jazz (directed by K. Shakhnazarov, 1983), Autumn marathon (directed by G. Daneliya, 1979), and The twelve chairs (directed by L. Gaidai, 1971). The analysis proved that the verbal track of the AD reflects the most important peripeteia of the characters, and together with them the features of the characters (appearance, character traits), the manner of their behaviour. The set of llinguistic and stylistic means is determined by the type of the comedy.

In classic communication, emotion is transferred via three channels: verbal, nonverbal and paraverbal. With the audio description, which should enable blind and visually impaired people to perceive visual processes, the visual channel is omitted. Emotions are objectified using the available linguistic and para-linguistic means. On the basis of the corpora of the German-language audio films, relevant forms and forms of emotion transfer in the audio description are analyzed.

Picture-Text. Intersemiotic Relations in Audio Description The concept of intersemioticity introduced by R. Jakobson [1959] was a milestone in the development of translation studies. Contemporary research on audio description (and new media in the broader perspective), especially in case of translation requires involving not only the semiotic aspect which co-creates the audio-medial text but also using intersemiotic transposition in new forms such as translation of words into music, dance, film or painting. Co-occurrence of picture and text in audiovisual productions requires from the translator-audio describer a modified approach, which postulates a transfer of original semiotic combination into target semiotic combination, which in case of audio description recreates the source relation of picture and text. If this relation is disrupted, the text will remain unintelligible or unclear. Therefore, the text presents the examples the relation of substitution, complementarity, interpretation, parallelism, and contradiction, which involve picture and text as well as their influence on the audio-medial message.

Copyright of Miedzy Oryginalem a Przekladem is the property of Ksiegarnia Akademicka Sp. zo.o and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Aim of the study. The aim of the study is to show the didactic nature of audio description, i.e. its use as a didactic means in learning the blind and visually impaired youth. Audio description is in this context understood as a service and an element that supports learning and reality experience. Research method. After a theoretical introduction to research on teaching of audio description (Zabrocka, 2014; Paplińska, 2016) and its emotionalism (Kunstler, 2014), the didactic potential of audio description is discussed on the example of the project "Images without barriers" organized for blind and visually impaired students. The aim of the project was to make museum and art exhibits accessible to blind recipients. The youth listened to this purpose emotionally colored audio description and learned in a multisensory way - through different sensory channels (hearing, touch, smell). Results. The classes, workshops and visits to the museums conducted as part of the project "Images without barriers" showed that thought-out and targeting blind students to multi-annual learning about exhibits and objects audio description is an excellent didactic tool. Young people with special educational needs were constantly interested in the content they were given, and their artistic work done at the end of the project was complex, rich in details and extraordinary, which means that the experiences they collected during the project were equally colorful. Conclusions. It is worth creating audio descriptions that are involved, thought out and oriented towards the multi-sensuality of experiencing reality. Such audio descriptions should be the basic didactic method in learning blind students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking into the Past, Looking into the Future – 10 Years of Film Audio Description in Poland This article presents the history of the development of audio description (AD) in Poland and gives an overview of the state of the art ten years after the introduction of this new type of audiovisual translation aimed at visually impaired audiences. The following aspects of AD in Poland are discussed: AD accessibility, standards of its creation, availability of training and legal regulations.

Intersemiotic poetics and teaching literature The article is devoted to intersemiotic poetics derived from the theory of translation, that is the principle of translation described by Roman Jakobson (the interpretation of linguistic signs by means of non-verbal signs). From the reconstruction of research stances, changes in the concepts of the mind, and a new understanding of the processes of perception and metaphor, the Author relates the mechanisms of intersemiotic translation to borderline forms (ekphrasis and audio description) and the principles of teaching. By analyzing selected examples (Jacek Kaczmarski’s ekphrasis and editorial notes to Wisława Szymborska’s poem Utopia), she proves that after rejecting the principles of equivalence and similarity, while simultaneously maintaining the principle of causality, one may look for affinities in deeper semantic layers (amplification, addition) or engage in teaching literature, where intellectual precision is related to the shaping of emotions and skills involved in the multisensual reading of cultural texts.

Copyright of Miedzy Oryginalem a Przekladem is the property of Ksiegarnia Akademicka Sp. zo.o and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Aim of research. This research revolves around the audio description for paintings and its emotional content. The starting point for reflections on the audio description is the division made by Roman Jakobson, according to which the audio description can be classified as an intersemiotic type of audiovisual translation. The article gives an outline of audio description in Poland and its general approach in the scientific discourse. Attention is also drawn to two approaches to creating audiovisual descriptions - German (task-oriented and technical) and Polish (artistic and geared to excite the blind visitor). The aim of the research is to show the connection of didactics and the transmission of emotions in audio description and to determine its function. Methodology. The subject of the research is the emotionality of the audio description in Beata Jerzakowska's publication Posłuchać obrazów [Listening to paintings]. As a part of the article, qualitative analysis of three descriptions is made in terms of language, para-textual and didactic elements. Outcomes. Audio description is a message of emotions that helps students develop their sensitivity and learn about new cultural contexts. Conclusions. Descriptions fulfil an artistic function because they replace the visual layer of the original work. In addition, the audio descriptions studied have an educational function as they complement the literary and linguistic education of students. Another feature of the audio descriptions is their pragmatism - the author of the book deliberately violates the accepted standards for the creation of audio descriptions, adding to the descriptions, among others, rhetorical questions, metaphors and synesthesia. In addition, didacticism and an attempt to convey emotions are also visible in the sound layer of the text and in the music incorporated into each of the audio descriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a practice report that discusses the course in audio description that was taught by the author of the articles in 2016/2017 at the Chair for Translation Studies and Intercultural Communication at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow by means of blended learning.

The article discusses the peculiarities, development and prevalence of the audio description methodology of theatrical performances in different countries. Special attention is paid to the review and analysis of emerging traditions of the methodology of audio description of theatrical performances in Lithuania, since any scientific articles discussing this subject in detail have not yet been published in our country. The article examines the audio introduction (AI) text of Panevėžys Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre performance Vyšnia šokolade (directed by Linas Marijus Zaikauskas). The AI text is based on the AI guidelines defined in foreign countries and drawn by the 3rd year Bachelor’s Degree students of Audiovisual Translation (Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty of Humanities) under the supervision of lecturer Dr. Laura Niedzviegienė. The issues of the preparation of the AI text are discussed and possible solutions are proposed. Furthermore, the author of the article provides general guidance on preparing the audio introductions of theatrical performances for visually impaired people living in Lithuania.

The aim of this paper is to review existing guidelines and strategies for AD in children’s theatre and to prepare an accessible visit for visuallyimpaired children to a puppet theatre. Taking under consideration the complexity of Plastusiowy pamiętnik (Plastuś’ Diary) the performance chosen to be audio described, we decided to create an audio introduction, AD script and a touch-tour prior to the spectacle. We believed that in such a way children could enjoy the play to the same extent as the sighted audience do. Our intention was to find out how to describe the convention of puppet theatre as well as to reach the balance between the abundance of stimuli in the play and information that should be delivered in the AD script, without breaking the suspension of disbelief.

The article compares the experience, often raised in contemporary aesthetic theories, of translating image into words, a relationship of the visible and linguistic with a translation technique, as well as museum experience, in order to indicate some regularities in the creation of audio description (AD) of works of art, understood as a new way of making artifacts accessible to people who suffer from visual impairment, as well as one of the areas of practice applied in museology, which by trial and error tries to adapt artistic means of expression to perceptive abilities of a distinct group of visitors. The first part discusses theories combining a picture with a word, as well as description of an image from the perspective of AD. Then it analyses two descriptions of the Neoplastic Room in the Museum of Art in Łódź: one provided by the art historian Janina Ładnowska, which was created in the late 1980s as a curatorial description and was not made for the blind, and the other prepared by students of the Department of the History of Art at the University of Łódź, with the support of the Audiodescription Foundation and the Culture without Barriers Foundation, and through consultations with people with visual impairments, in the academic year 2013-2014. The article also describes the methods of supporting the reception of a work of art with multi-sensory experience. The main research questions are: While creating descriptions, should we look for beauty/moving elements/emotions (all being inalienable characteristics of all art which explores experience) or should we confine ourselves to simple descriptions? Should we create simulacra of works of art (such as typhlographics, 3D prints, referential objects that imitate the feel of the original, much praised by blind people)?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article on translational transgressions is a review of the volume Transgressionen im Spiegel der Übersetzung, a festschrift on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Maria Krysztofiak-Kaszyńska, professor of German and Danish literature at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. It comprises a collection of texts written by former doctoral students as well as colleagues of the scholar on the theory of translation in general and transgressions in particular, thus covering the main topics of her field of study and her research. All contributions are published in German. They represent a variety of different approaches and perspectives, which in condensed form document the current status of this rapidly developing academic field comprehensively and well. The entire volume can thus serve as an introduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Miedzy Oryginalem a Przekladem is the property of Ksiegarnia Akademicka Sp. zo.o and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Audiodeskrypcja do filmu zagranicznego z tłumaczeniem w wersji lektorskiej na przykładzie filmu pt. Duża ryba Audiodeskrypcja (AD) rozwija się w Polsce od 2006 r. Do niedawna filmy obcojęzyczne praktycznie nie były udostępniane osobom z dysfunkcją wzroku. Powodem braku dostępności filmów obcojęzycznych było przekonanie, iż wersja lektorska – czyli najczęściej używana w polskiej telewizji metoda przekładu audiowizualnego – nie nadaje się do połączenia z audiodeskrypcją. Uważano, że osoby z dysfunkcją wzroku nie poradzą sobie z przyswojeniem trzech różnych ścieżek dźwiękowych (oryginalna ścieżka dźwiękowa, wersja lektorska oraz audiodeskrypcja). Pogląd ten stał jednak w sprzeczności z potrzebami i oczekiwaniami osób niewidomych i niedowidzących. W artykule zaprezentowano wyniki badania ankietowego i dyskusji w grupie fokusowej, przeprowadzonych z udziałem odbiorców z dysfunkcją wzroku, którzy wzięli udział w specjalnym pokazie filmu pt. Duża ryba (2003, reż. Tim Burton) z wersją lektorską i audiodeskrypcją. Wyniki potwierdzają, że osoby z dysfunkcją wzroku chcą oglądać filmy zagraniczne z wersją lektorską i audiodeskrypcją. Wskazują jednak, że trzeba spełnić określone warunki w zakresie udźwiękowienia, synchronizacji oraz identyfikacji bohaterów, by osoby te były w stanie tego rodzaju filmy oglądać.

This paper is about sign perception of colors for sighted and blind people. We selected three different colours: white, red and blue. Associations are presented which are given to each of respondents in both groups. We then checked how answers corresponded with symbolic meaning of the three colors known from literary, psychological and linguistic stereotypes. We also checked if white, red and blue matter symbolize meaning in audio description, which is a technique to describe art for blind people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article outlines a new type of audio description: auteur description, which aims to immerse the blind and partially sighted audience into the story world created by the auteur-director, as presented in the screenplay. Two films: Volver by Pedro Almodóvar and Dzień Świra (The Day of the Wacko) by Marek Koterski, are used to highlight the main features of auteur description: the use of metaphors, emotional and marked language, subjective descriptions, all based on the screenplay text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a novel solution that aims to supplement audio description (AD): audio introduction. The first part of the article tackles the problems connected with writing AD. Then the functions of the audio introduction are described, as well as its form and application. The further part of the paper consists of comparative analysis of two audio introductions, the English and the Polish one, to the film Man on Wire. The analysis takes into account the audiences’ opinions on the audio introductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poland, a country of short audio description (AD) tradition, faces two major problems as far as AD implementation is concerned: lack of financing and of experienced audio describers. The article presents the results from a three-stage study carried out in order to prove that translation of scripts written by experienced British audio describers into Polish in not only feasible but also less time- and therefore cost-consuming and in result the translation of audio description scripts could be an alternative method of script creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Audio description to films is about understanding emotions and body language expressed by actors; in other words, it is about translating film language into the language of audio description. As a result, AD logically and consistently builds up tension and describes conflicts between film characters, who are followed by viewers through different twists and turns until the end of the film. Such audio description makes it possible for viewers to perceive a film as a coherent whole. It also engages them into the film, making its reception rewarding. Last but not least, it provides viewers with the same emotions they would experience if they were watching the film as their sighted counterparts.

Audio description has been present in Poland since 2006. On the one hand, it is still very unfamiliar to the general public and fairly unknown even among its target group of visually impaired persons. On the other hand, there is a rapidly growing number of those who are actively involved in the production, distribution and promotion of audio description. They include registered charities, art galleries, museums, film clubs and local culture centres, film festivals and distributors, companies offering Audio Visual Translation services, individual persons, research groups and universities offering courses in audio description. Audio description in Poland is prepared, on a more or less regular basis, for television, cinema, theatre, museums, art galleries, exhibitions (both seasonal and permanent), historical and architecture tours, nature paths and sports events. A new application of audio description was added to that list in 2011, that is audio description used for describing photographs, illustrations and graphics in newspapers and magazines. The aim of this paper is to present the development and the current situation of audio description for the press in Poland. The paper also offers a set of exercises which may be used in the training of audio describers for press illustrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Audio description is a technique used for making visual content accessible to people with visual impairments, i.e. the blind and partially sighted. Specially prepared descriptions allow them for independent and competent reception of films, theatre and opera performances, works of art or sport events. The practice and theory of audio description focused primarily on researching and making accessible the descriptions added to audiovisual productions; the question of accessibility of museums and galleries was marginalized. It is the one, however, for years requiring theoretical considerations followed by practical implementation of the solutions developed. This article concentrates on two issues, namely how to convey in audio description the beauty inherent in every work of art, which creates unique aesthetic experience in its receiver, how long such audio description should last and how detailed it should be to meet the perceptive capabilities of the blind and partially sighted. In this article, audio description is subject to analysis carried out until now primarily in relation to literary texts. The author concentrates on the possibilities of conveying, in a verbal description extending over time, the visually-perceived beauty, meaning perceived immediately, in the process lasting for a short time. The author also discusses the work of researchers focusing on intersemiotic translation and analyzing the borderline between literature and fine arts. Moreover, the article presents the notion of literary ekphrasis, being a description whose aim, while caring about the reader’s aesthetic experience, is to ensure that the reader becomes familiar with the described work of art. Is it possible for the audio description that makes museum exhibits accessible to its target audience to become a special type of ekphrasis? Or should it only draw on solutions proposed by the authors of ekphrases? This article poses the above questions to induce theoretical reflection. It also points out that research aimed at evaluating the length and level of detail of audio description of the works of art carried out, for the first time ever, by the Polish researchers is on the way to come, as soon as this year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of research into perception of audio description among teachers employed in special schools for the visually impaired in Poland. Due to the lack of data in this field, qualitative methods were used. The project involved 19 teachers from 3 special schools, and it included analysis of 11 in-depth interviews with teachers from two special schools. The questions focused on previous experiences with audio description and possibilities for wider application of this technique in educational settings. The results show that teachers know what AD is, and their experiences with this technique are positive. Nonetheless, AD is not widely used in education, although teachers admit that it has huge potential in this sphere and recommend its use in numerous didactical contexts. Furthermore, teachers offer a range of activities that could be undertaken to popularise AD in educational settings. Their recommendations concern writing scripts, distribution and promotion of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to present audio description as a technique of subtle gaze direction during the perception of multimedia material. Multimedia educational materials dynamically take over the educational market. Substantial research findings support their effectiveness; however, there are also arguments pointing at difficulties in the perception of multimedia materials. In this paper we focus on two potential sources of these problems. The first source we associate with the design of multimedia. There are a number of rules that need to be followed when designing multimedia educational materials, such as the rule of multimodality or the rule of time and space coherence. The second source of the difficulties we assign to the complexity of multimedia which may result in cognitive overload. As a solution we postulate to introduce audio description as a technique leading to the unity of image and sound. Supporting arguments come from eye-tracking studies on audio description in the education of sighted people. For example, primary school children watching a film with audio description concentrated their gaze more on the object highlighted in audio description than the control group what helps in the learning content understanding. The research overview positively verifies the potential role of audio description as a subtle gaze direction in the multimedia education of sighted people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present the results of a research study on the possibility of using audio description (AD) as an additional didactic tool in the education of the blind and partially sighted children. More specifically, the study meant to investigate whether and, if so, to what extent adding AD enhances the comprehension of educational films among children and what the possible value of AD in educational settings could be. In addition, the underlying objective of the study was to raise the awareness among teachers about the importance of AD as a means to achieve audiovisual accessibility. The filmic material employed for the purposes of the study consisted of three episodes from the educational animation series Once Upon a Time..., namely Once Upon a Time...Man (episode America), Once Upon a Time… Life (episode Blood) and Once Upon a Time… Discoverers (episode Newton). A total of 55 children participated in the study. After each screening, the children were invited to take part in a quiz competition, whose aim was to test their level of comprehension of the shown film. To gather children’s responses, the researchers employed innovative clicker devices and supporting software from InterWrite PRS. Both the screenings and the questionnaires with clickers were greeted with much enthusiasm by children and they arouse interest and curiosity also among teachers. The study revealed that AD in educational films helps to develop and retain specialised vocabulary. Moreover, it helps the children to follow the film, thus improving its overall comprehension. It is the researchers’ assumption that AD, through its use of varied word choice, synonyms, metaphors and similes, can boost literacy of the blind and partially sighted children. Finally, a conclusion can be drawn that films with AD could not only complement lessons, but also make them more enjoyable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]