I start with my shadow. It's not the first thing I notice but it's a beginning. We arrived in time for the sun to light the entire garden. These are the nice things about being late.
<singing in Nuu-chah-nulth>
I was told by an Indigenous plant expert that the spring birds sing to help the berries ripen.
<singing in Nuu-chah-nulth>
The plant stands in the wind while the west building shade travels closer to me. When I extend my left arm out in a wingspan stretch, I notice the shadows that the creases of my hand create facing up towards the sun. It reminds me of the cedar trees back home on the <______> growing out towards the ocean that reflects light from <_____> holding hands with the sunrays. Everything about these plants are queer. A love story, a promise, a new day.
Living Description
Living Description is an education initiative convened by artist Aislinn Thomas that conceptualizes access not as an accommodation, but as a relational process of shared sense-making. Beginning with a series of alt-text and visual description workshops led by Aislinn Thomas and Ramya Amuthan in 2021, the project culminates in the launch of 1-833-SEMI-PUB: a toll-free listening space featuring six commissioned audio descriptions that offer multiple non-visual ways to experience the x̱aw̓s shew̓áy̓ New Growth《新生林》garden as a living system.
