Activating Captions

Activating Captions is an online platform that critically engages with captioning as a singular artistic form of expression. The project features artists' videos, newly commissioned texts, and a site-specific intervention by visual artist Shannon Finnegan on the facade of the ARGOS building.

Activating Captions transforms captioning into an expressive art form, expanding its role in accessibility and enhancing understanding of accessibility in visual media.Tech Literacy & Accessibility: Activating Captions transforms the traditional role of captioning from a functional accessibility tool into a rich, artistic medium that questions and expands its use in audiovisual media. Through an online platform, the project features videos by artists who experiment with captioning to critique its limitations and explore its expressive potential beyond conveying spoken words. Artists like Shannon Finnegan bring captioning into the physical world with interventions such as a site-specific piece on the ARGOS building facade, challenging viewers to rethink how captioning can engage audiences as both a visual art and an accessibility device.Reducing Harm in New Media: By presenting captioning as a critical, poetic, and sometimes humorous intervention, Activating Captions highlights the exclusive nature of much audiovisual content and questions the assumption that all viewers can access information equally. This project disrupts the reductive, utilitarian view of captions, instead offering a nuanced approach that honours the experiences of Deaf, disabled, and other marginalized communities, advocating for accessibility that respects cultural and aesthetic dimensions.Data & Knowledge Stewardship: The project curates a unique archive of caption-based art, commissioning new texts from artists, poets, and scholars to explore captioning’s potential. By documenting these works and reflections, Activating Captions builds a shared knowledge base that supports an evolving captioning culture across disciplines and geographies. This collection serves as an enduring repository that encourages continued innovation in captioning, safeguarding the knowledge and practices of artists reimagining accessibility.

1. How does Activating Captions challenge us to see captioning not only as an accessibility tool but as a unique artistic medium? What new possibilities does this open for how we engage with visual and audio content?3. How does Activating Captions highlight the limitations of standard captioning practices, and what might it reveal about the assumptions that underpin them? How could a more expansive view of captioning impact broader accessibility practices?5. How does Activating Captions encourage us to rethink the concept of "inclusion" in relation to disability justice? What does it suggest about moving beyond merely including Deaf and HoH communities in ways that are more culturally and aesthetically attuned?6. How does the project’s multi-layered approach to captioning invite us to engage with Deaf and HoH communities on their own terms, rather than within predefined, “neat” frameworks of accessibility?9. Reflecting on Shannon Finnegan’s site-specific captioning work on the ARGOS building facade, how does situating captions in physical space challenge traditional expectations of where and how accessibility should “happen”?10. How does this project’s approach to captioning push us to rethink our definitions of access, community, and visibility? How might these definitions shift if accessibility is seen as a dynamic, evolving process rather than a fixed standard?11. What does Activating Captions reveal about the intersection of language, sound, and culture? How might this project inspire us to honour the diverse linguistic and cultural realities of Deaf and HoH communities beyond language-based inclusion?12. How does Activating Captions invite a deeper understanding of Deaf and HoH identity that goes beyond accessibility to engage with cultural and aesthetic experiences? What might we learn about identity and representation through this lens?13. In what ways could Activating Captions inspire new practices in other accessibility tools or methods? How could we apply its approach to re-envisioning other forms of access in media, art, and public spaces?14. How does the project’s focus on the “aesthetic value” of captions encourage us to think critically about which accessibility practices we see as “worthy” of artistic exploration? What does this say about broader societal attitudes towards disability and art?15. Activating Captions frames captioning as a potential tool for collective knowledge-building. How can reimagining captions in this way deepen our understanding of accessibility as a collaborative, community-driven practice?16. How does this project push us to reconsider the relationship between art, accessibility, and technology? In what ways might it serve as a model for future art projects that aim to bridge creative expression with disability justice?