30 minute video
squats, planks, push-ups
outside: 34 degrees
A fine day for running, but I’m taking a break to work on my core/hips. Tomorrow I’ll do a longer run before we get a dusting of snow. I’m continuing to do the 30 minute total body workout I discovered a few weeks ago. I’m a little less sore after all the exercises, but the 2 minute plank blast at the end and the 45 seconds x 2 of continuous push-ups are a challenge. Currently I’m doing knee push-ups. Next step: to do those for 45 seconds without struggling. The the step after that: 45 seconds of toe push-ups. How long will it take me to get to that step?
for future Sara: feeling tired after a few days of bad sleep — restless legs, or sore left hip, or both waking me up a several times in the night. I should really start making note of any night where I sleep straight through. Does that ever happen? It must, some time. Cumulatively, I get enough sleep, it’s just never without interruptions and moments trying to relax my leg.
another note for future Sara: currently watching White Lotus, Death and Other Details, and Seinfeld. Enjoying all three. Loving the complicated characters in White Lotus. Finding Seinfeld hold up better than I thought; also finding moments of it to be shocking in their insensitivity. Death and Other Details also has complicated characters that you can’t totally dismiss. I don’t think I’d be able to watch it without Scott describing some things I’ve missed with my bad eyes.
Back to my Ekphrasis / alt-text project:
features of poetry that help with alt-text
- attention to language: word choice — meaning, intent, tone, perspective — and how it contrasts with image
- word economy: brevity!
- experimental spirit: experimenting with new ways to make it accessible, to translate image into words
key feature of alt-text to remember: alt-text is about making images/the web/communication more accessible. Accessibility must be one of the primary goals/factors of the descriptive writing.
And, centering accessibility does not mean it’s only for people who need access. In their article about audio descriptions as pedagogical tools. Georgina Kleege and Scott Wallin, argue that the careful, slow attention that audio descriptions requires provide great learning opportunities for all students:
Once we reject audio description’s traditional role as a detached, neutral act of translation that functions only as an enabling accommodation, we may regard its multiple functions and contingencies as fertile ground to be explored and utilized. For example, because audio description is inextricably part of whatever discursive practice it seeks to relate, we can explore the aesthetic, ideological, political and ethical underpinnings of this work of representation and its described object or event. In terms of pedagogy, audio description can be a dynamic tool for facilitating student engagement and analysis.
Audio Description as a Pedagogical Tool
side note here: I’d like to watch a few shows/movies with audio description on. My hunch is that these descriptions are great AND they will require some practice getting used to. I might begin with some episodes of Dickinson to get me started.
How I See — more experimenting
my initial description of the image from 10 oct: My view facing south from the overlook on the Lake Street bridge. The Mississippi River with trees in the background and an apartment building in the upper right corner. This photo is in color — blue water, green trees with hints of yellow and orange –but to me it looks black and white, or gray and brown.
5+ nouns / 5 adjectives / verbs:
nouns: river, waves, trees, cloud, sky, building, road
adjectives: gray, shiny, glittery, small, wide, pewter, west
verbs: stretching, sparkling, sparking, waving, hovering, standing, holding up, cutting through, leading
one sentence about the most important thing in image: The only colors I can see in this image are gray and glitter.
a second sentence about the second most important thing: I stand on a bridge facing southeast and watch light reflecting off of the waves to create a pewter path on the otherwise dull water.
a third sentence about the third most important thing: The dark trees stand at the edge, holding back the water, holding up a road, and leading to a dark rectangular shape that I know is an apartment building.
I took these exercises from Alt Text as Poetry Workbook. I can see potential here.
What if I used the poem, Medical History/ Nicole Sealey, as an inspiration — listing mundane details, then ending with a stinger: The only colors I can see in this image are gray and glitter?